Michigan GOP spotlights crime under Whitmer in digital ads ahead of Election Day

Lansing — The Michigan Republican Party launched Tuesday its largest ad push of the 2022 election yet, spending at least $100,000 on digital commercials accusing Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of being "soft on crime."

The ad debuted the same day Whitmer signed legislation to boost funding for road patrols and said public safety is one of her top priorities.

The one-minute GOP ad featured someone wielding a baseball bat, a clip of Whitmer saying she supports "the spirit" of the defund the police movement, statistics showing violent crime has increased since 2019 and the image of Whitmer and President Joe Biden holding hands.

Michigan Republicans have been at a significant fundraising disadvantage as they try to unseat the three Democrats who hold the battleground state's top offices and amid division among donors over the direction of the party.

Whitmer, who won her first term by 9 percentage points in 2018, and the Democratic Governors Association have been spending millions of dollars on TV ads, easily outdoing groups backing Republican gubernatorial nominee Tudor Dixon of Norton Shores.

Gustavo Portela, spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party, said the GOP's new ad buy would be on digital platforms and would be "six figures," the largest ad expenditure the party has made of the election cycle so far.

"Our neighborhoods deserve to be safe and feel safe in Michigan, and the reality is that’s not the case right now," said Portela, who's deputy chief of staff and communications director for the Michigan GOP. "We’re bringing attention to the fact that Gretchen Whitmer has been soft on crime allowing crime to spike thanks to her support for both the defund the police movement and the defunding ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) movement."

During the 2018 campaign, Republicans accused Whitmer of wanting to abolish ICE. At the time, Whitmer's then-press secretary said the allegation was a "flat-out lie."

In 2020, the Democratic governor said she supported the “spirit” of efforts to defund police agencies. The conversation surrounding the “defund the police” movement was really about reprioritizing taxpayer resources, she told The Root in June 2020.

“The spirit as you just articulated is really just about reprioritizing and rebuilding communities, not just policing,” Whitmer said at the time.

But Whitmer has worked to provide police departments with more money to hire additional officers. She signed bills on Tuesday to increase funding for the state's secondary road patrol program from $10 million to $15 million. The program supports efforts to monitor traffic violations, enforce criminal law and investigate accidents involving motor vehicles, according to the governor's office.

"As a former prosecutor, public safety is a top priority for me,” Whitmer said. “Today’s bipartisan bills will improve road safety by putting more officers out on patrol."

The governor has "worked across the aisle to support law enforcement with the tools they need to keep Michiganders safe, including increased resources to hire more police and strengthen training," said Maeve Coyle, spokeswoman for Whitmer's reelection campaign.

The crime rates in the new GOP ad appear to be based on data from the Michigan State Police Criminal Justice Information Center. The center tallied 48,778 violent crimes for 2021, Whitmer's third year in office, up 8% from 45,048 in 2018, the year before she took office.

Newer numbers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed violent crime was down in six of seven large Michigan cities over May 1-Aug. 31, 2022.

cmauger@detroitnews.com

Staff Writer Beth LeBlanc contributed.