UPDATE: Hapless House candidate Steve Marino is now claiming that his fundraiser at the home of a doctor indicted as a central figure in an illegal drug ring was cancelled “weeks ago.”
From all evidence, Marino (R-Harrison Township) is desperately trying to spin things to deflate the story. The invitation to the fundraiser, seeking between $100 and $250 per attendee, clearly shows that the event was slated for this Thursday. The invitations include Marino’s campaign logo.
Macomb Daily reporter Mitch Hotts checked things out in the neighborhood of Dr. Jennifer Franklin, the Harrison Township physician linked by the feds to a $6 million illegal drug ring, and he found that a massive party tent providing cover for numerous tables and chairs was erected on Tuesday in the yard at the doctor’s lakefront Harrison Township home.
Marino claims that he pulled the plug on the fundraiser and that he did not know Dr. Franklin. He is reportedly asserting that state Rep. Pete Lucido (R-Shelby Township) arranged for the tainted doctor to host the event, which was seeking donations between $100 and $250.
But Democrats wonder whether Marino might be a friend of Dr. Franklin as he apparently lived just a few houses down the street, on Harrison Township’s Lakeshore Drive, from Franklin and her husband until recently.
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If House candidate Steve Marino’s real intentions were to run the worst campaign for the state Legislature in recent history — and not to actually win election — he’s doing just fine with a month to go in Campaign 2016.
Marino, 27, a Harrison Township Republican, has an upcoming campaign fundraiser scheduled that will be hosted by Dr. Jennifer Franklin, who is under federal indictment for participating in a $6 million drug ring that illegally sold prescription pills on the street.
The Michigan Democratic Party will hold a press conference this morning calling on Marino, a former lobbyist, to cancel the fundraising party at Franklin’s Harrison Township home and to refund all the pre-event money raised from tickets sold. The press conference will be held outside the Macomb County Administration Building in downtown Mount Clemens as Marino, a county commissioner, arrives to attend a commissioner’s meeting.
Marino, of course, has become infamous over the past several weeks for being caught on tape saying: U.S. corporations should take advantage of overseas child labor laws in factories that employ kids 10 to 12 years old; the Social Security eligibility age should be raised to 75; outsourcing jobs to China is an effective means for corporations to avoid paying American wage rates; as a lobbyist, he paid big bar tabs racked up by state legislators; and that he engaged in a ploy to avoid paying part of his property tax bill on the lakefront home he bought from his father.
Meanwhile, the federal indictment unsealed by the Justice Department in March charged 10 Detroit area people with fraudulently selling prescriptions worth approximately 1 million pills of the highly addictive drugs Roxicodone and Oxycodone. U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuad said the defendants will face charges for conspiracy to illegally distribute prescription drugs between January 2013 and May 2015.
The ring was allegedly led by a West Bloomfield chiropractor who recruited fake patients to obtain fraudulent prescriptions from Franklin, 39, and a second physician.
Now Steve Marino is blaming a sitting State Representative for hosting a party. I would like to know how Steve Marino’s neighbor is hosting party yet Steve Marino claims complete ignorance? Instead he runs his mouth once again, blames everyone and anyone and tries to deflect the truth. For all of you over in Harrison Township and the surrounding areas, you have an easy choice for your next State Representative: A mother, a business woman, a wife, an honest homeowner, and someone who has been involved in the community longer than Steve Marino has been walking.
Shame on you Steve Marino for once again making up blatant lies about people, not taking responsibility for your actions, and thinking telling the truth does not have to apply to you whatsoever.