Via the Detroit News: Mike Rogers’ wife gives away $10 gift cards at Detroit gas station.
Lucky drivers in the parking lot of a Detroit gas station on Wednesday, Oct. 14, encountered a woman in a red, belted pantsuit and black stilettos walking around and giving away free $10 gift cards for gas to customers.
[…]
What the woman didn’t lead with in her exchange with the driver at the Freedom Fuel gas station on Harper and Cadieux is that she is Kristi Rogers, wife of Republican U.S. Senate nominee Mike Rogers, who is locked in a tight contest with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed that could help determine control of the U.S. Senate next term.
[…]
Rogers’ campaign didn’t immediately respond on Oct. 14 to questions about what, if any, campaign messages that Kristi Rogers was handing out with the gift cards or what she was saying to drivers in the parking lot.
This reminds me of my days studying Latin American elections and cases of parties and candidates trying to curry favor with voters by giving them things like food and alcohol.
Is this legal, you ask? Maybe (but it depends).
Campaign finance experts said such a giveaway can be done legally without running afoul of state and federal prohibitions on buying or bribing people for votes, though the Rogers campaign likely must disclose any expenditures on the gas cards under federal election regulations.
Michigan’s election code ― which applies to both federal and state candidates ― states that it’s a misdemeanor to provide items of value to induce people to vote or to register to vote.
But a gift card giveaway can be legal if it’s offered to everyone without conditions, meaning the recipients aren’t required specifically to vote or support or oppose a candidate or particular political initiative in exchange for the card, lawyers told The Detroit News.
“It really does depend on what she is saying or doing. … Is she saying, ‘Vote for Mike Rogers’? If there’s anything like, ‘Be sure to register and then vote for Mike Rogers,’ that would cross a line in my view. Certainly, if there’s a quid pro quo,” said Mark Brewer, an election lawyer and a former chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party.
It all smacks a bit of a desperation stunt, but also has the whiff of corruption.
The cherry on the sundae is that all of this was at a Freedom Fuel location.
Some video:
