GOP Spat Over Coat of Arms Use Signals Colorful 39th District Campaign

A flap over one candidate’s use of an image of the official state coat of arms on a campaign web site is the latest signal contentious days lie ahead in Aug. 5 primary races in Michigan House District 39.

First, some background about candidates who want to represent the district, which includes West Bloomfield, Wixom and Commerce Township:

Deb O’Hagan of West Bloomfield, a longtime Oakland County Republican activist who formed the Lakes Area Tea Party, wants to take the GOP nomination from one-term incumbent Rep. Klint Kesto, R-Commerce Township in the primary.

Fake Democrat?

There’s a  third candidate in the GOP primary, Alan Stephens of Milford, and there was nearly a fourth – until one of the potential Republicans switched loyalties and hand-marked his petition of voter signatures and filed for the seat as a Democrat.

That’s Michael Saari, who the Michigan Democratic Committee claims is a fake Democrat planted to hurt real Democrat Sandy Colvin’s chances, The Detroit News reported.

The 55-year-old Saari, who reportedly called President Obama a tyrant and lunatic and questioned his citizenship, has a long history of voting Republican. But Saari claims he had a change of heart about  his party affiliation after his girlfriend said his positions on healthcare and school privatization were more consistent with Democratic tenets than Republican.

Supporter Posted Coat of Arms Image

That sets the stage for what happened this week when O’Hagan got into some tepid water over a post on her campaign Facebook page that featured an image of the state’s coat of arms.

O’Hagan’s campaign manager, Rosanne Ponkowski, said it was an innocent mistake, and that the image had been posted without O’Hagan’s knowledge “by someone who thought he was doing us a favor.”

O’Hagan removed the image after learning a complaint had been filed with Michigan Secretary of State by Chris Knoja – who may or may not be a Kesto campaign operative, the Detroit Free Press reports.

Knoja says he’s just one of Kesto’s supporters, and he doesn’t work or volunteer with the campaign. 

However, the Free Press said an inactive link on Kesto’s campaign web site lists Knoja as a campaign assistant, and campaign finance reports list $4,000 in reimbursements for expenses during Kesto’s 2012 campaign.

Regardless, Konja thinks O’Hagan should be formally charged. “It’s just appalling to me that her first political move was an illegal one,” he said.

Whether Konja was paid to be appalled aside, the Secretary of State’s office was less so. No charges have been filed.

Using Great Seal More Serious

The Facebook post at the center of Konja’s complaint featured an image of the coat of arms altered to include the words “Deborah O’Hagan” in red lettering and “for state representative 39th District, People before Politics” in white lettering.

According to the SOS web site, mutilating the coat of arms can be a misdemeanor – but not as serious a gaffe as using the coat of arms when the images encircled with the words “Great Seal of the State of Michigan.”

That’s worse.

How much worse? The state code says flat-out in the state code that “no facsimile or reproduction of the Great Seal may be used in any manner unconnected with the official business of the state.” Violations in the terms of very limited use of the Great Seal are also misdemeanors – and apparently less tolerated.

The Attorney General's Office has opined that the executive departments of Michigan state government may not use a facsimile of the Great Seal on their departmental letterheads or bulletins.

Still, in the overall scheme of political shenanigans and  who is or who isn’t a bona fide member of a political party, or who may or may not be a paid political operative, it may not be all that bad.

All of this raises the question:

• What issues should the candidates on both sides of the aisle be talking about in the House District 39 race? Tell us in the comments below.