Michigan Democratic Party leader Mark Brewer on Monday called on former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra to quit his job at a Washington lobbying firm since he’s running for the U.S. Senate, calling it a conflict of interest.
Brewer made the call after Detroit News political reporter Marisa Schultz reported Monday Hoekstra has earned $318,000 since leaving Congress, $240,000 of which came from Dickstein Shapiro, a Washington law and lobbying firm, according to belated financial disclosure reports he has filed.
“Lobbyists and their cohorts already have enough influence in Congress, we don’t need one of them to be Michigan’s Senator,” Brewer said in a press release.
The Federal Election Commission reports are required under the 1978 Ethics in Government Act that calls for mandatory public disclosure of financial and employment history, Schultz reports.
Hoekstra is in a primary race with at least six other Republican candidates for the right to face U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Lansing, next November.
Stabenow reported in her FEC filing that she’s in debt and has a revolving line of credit worth between $15,001 and $50,000 with a 13 percent interest rate with Lake Trust Credit Union in Lansing. She makes $174,000 as a senator and earns a pension of nearly $65,000 from the state of Michigan for her work in the Legislature.
Cullen Schwarz, a spokesman for Stabenow, says the report reflects her available credit, but the senator has only borrowed $2,000 for her daughter’s wedding this year.
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