Brody's Notes... Michigan State Republican Primary Turns 'Lawsuit Ugly'

Kim Meltzer  Photo Courtesy Of Michigan State Government

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) AUG 2 | A hotly contested Republican party primary race in Macomb County, Michigan's 11th State Senatorial District, has now spawned a lawsuit by one of the challengers to incumbent Kim Metzer's campaign flyer accusing him of "wanting to legalise public sex in restrooms."

Former Michigan State Representative Leon Drolet, (R) in an interview with The Detroit Free Press last Friday, told correspondent Steve Neavling:

"I'm stunned and saddened that Kim Meltzer would lower herself to the level of printing complete lies about me," Drolet told the Detroit Free Press. "I am truly embarrassed for Kim. She owes the voters an apology."

Drolet had co-sponsored legislation in 2003 that sought to update a 1927 Michigan state law outlawing consenting sodomy by amending it to reference only "sodomy with an animal."  The bill made no mention of public restrooms, and public sex of any type remains illegal.

Drolet filed a defamation lawsuit in Macomb County Circuit Court Friday afternoon against Meltzer.

“Unfortunately people are used to last minute smear attacks, or twisting the truth, or even stretching the truth. What Kim Meltzer has done here, is shameless. She’s made up allegations she knows are not true,” Drolet said.

Meltzer told The Free Press' Neavling that she wasn't sure about the accusations, but said, "This is how we do it in Macomb County."

Neavling reports that according to Bill Ballenger, editor and publisher of the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics: 

"Macomb County is famous for this kind of politics with these three characters, everybody expected this would be a knock-down, drop-dead, brass-knuckles fight." 

Meltzer, who is from Macomb Township, and is behind some of the boldest accusations, of the primary race, has Michigan political veterans say they’ve never seen anything like it; others describe it as the most vile political hate mail landing in mail boxes across Macomb County. The mailing shows Macomb Township Republican Leon Drolet’s face superimposed over a rainbow flag, with two male figures holding hands and claim Drolet opposes heterosexual marriage and was on a mission from 2003 forward to permit gay sex in public parks and restrooms. She accused  another primary opponent, Jack Brandenburg of sexually harassing an unnamed woman in Lansing. Both of her opponents feverishly deny the accusations.