Opponent’s diversionary tactic attempts to disenfranchise voters and draws attention away from his ethically challenged record

This is so typical of the divisive crap Mr. Ward and his party continues to pull. It must be so important that he actually made a trip to Livingston County and downtown Howell after getting his marching orders from the state party. To bad he’s not as responsive to constituents.
As we have seen in the past, (see post for 9/26) this is one of Mr. Ward’s favorite ploys when he plays the race card and blames the bogeyman Detroit the state’s problems.
Mr. Johnson made a mistake as a teenager, and he has paid his debt to society. He has clearly been rehabilitated. He served as Rep. Bill McConico’s Chief-of-Staff, so he has much more experience than Joe Hune did when he was elected. Craig DeRoche is going to try and twist a law around to use it to benefit him when it was clearly not intended to do what he’s trying to do. The law was intended more to address some of the questionable things Mr. Ward has done while in office.
This is a ploy to distract from the lack of action by the do nothing Legislature, and its just one more attempt to disenfranchise minority voters. Mr. Johnson beat seven other candidates in the primary election with 1,476 votes, and the person in second only got 808 votes. The real funny thing is there’s not even a Republican in the race. How sad.

By Dan Meisler DAILY PRESS & ARGUS
State Reps. Chris Ward and Joe Hune are pledging to vote against letting a Detroit lawmaker who was convicted of a felony 13 years ago take office next year, but Democrats accuse them of bringing up irrelevant issues to distract voters from the state's real problems.
Ward, of Brighton Township, and Hune, of Hamburg Township, are both Republicans, and have joined the chorus of GOP leaders bringing up the background of Detroit Democratic House candidate Bert Johnson.
Ward and Hune brought their case to the Daily Press & Argus newsroom Friday, saying the Michigan Constitution prohibits from service in the Legislature people who have in the last 20 years "been convicted of a felony involving a breach of the public trust."
Johnson pleaded no contest to armed robbery in the 1990s.
"If that's not a breach of the public trust, what is?" Hune asked.
But Democrats accused them of bringing up irrelevant issues.
Mike McGonegal, Ward's opponent, said he hasn't heard one word about Johnson in his door-to-door campaigning.
"The people in Livingston County are not concerned about some obscure legislator," he said. "They're concerned about their jobs, and I think Chris and Joe ought to be concerned about their jobs."
Added county Democratic Party Chairman Joe Carney: "I'm amazed that Joe Hune and Chris Ward are more interested in Detroit than in their own area."
He said voters are more interested in education, health care and jobs.
"What these two guys are talking about is baloney," Carney said.
House Speaker Craig DeRoche, R-Novi, brought the issue up a few weeks ago.
The Michigan Constitution specifically says the felonies that prohibit someone from serving must involve a "breach of public trust," and Hune and Ward both said armed robbery fits that bill.
But Richard McLellan, a Republican attorney in Lansing respected for his knowledge of state government, said in July that his research shows that opinions by the state attorney general have held that a breach of the public trust must be an act that is committed while in office and harms the public.