MI-Gov: On Friday, the Michigan Republican Party launched a digital ad that accused Democrat Gretchen Whitmer of "refus[ing] to prosecute [serial sexual abuser and former USA Gymnastics doctor] Larry Nassar on sexual assault charges" while she was interim Ingham County prosecutor in 2016. Whitmer, who revealed that she was a rape survivor years ago, quickly held a press conference where she tearfully called the attacks a lie and declaring the GOP was "hurting the women who bravely came forward and their families every time you (put Nassar in an ad)."
Whitmer also said at the presser that "Bill Schuette and his party’s weaponizing of the Nassar case is callous, it’s craven and it’s a complete lie when it comes to my record." Several of Nassar's victims also attended and called for the GOP to pull the spot, which the state party says they won't do. Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette also claimed that Whitmer had "failed to prosecute" and "chose not to prosecute this case."
However, Schuette of all people should know what really happened. The Detroit News writes that Whitmer helped secure the warrants that led to the raids that got Nassar convicted in federal court for child pornography, while Schuette filed the sexual assault charges against Nassar. Whitmer, whose jurisdiction covered Michigan State University, where Nassar worked, and her chief assistant say they referred the sexual assault case to Schuette because Nassar's alleged crimes had taken place in multiple counties, so it was better for a statewide prosecutor to handle them. The paper adds that Schuette noted this point when he agreed to review the case.
Back in December, MSU Police Chief Jim Dunlap had said that Whitmer was hesitant to charge Nassar with sexual assault because she wanted to focus instead on child pornography charges, believing she'd have an easier time securing a conviction for those; Whitmer called this characterization "patently false" at the time and said the campus police didn't give her the relevant police reports before Schuette took jurisdiction of the case. On Friday, Dunlap put out a statement saying that his department had worked with both Whitmer and Schuette's offices as well as the U.S. attorney, and their efforts had been a success in prosecuting Nassar.
The GOP's attempt to use Nassar's crimes to tar Whitmer come at a time when things are looking pretty bad for Schuette. The RGA canceled part of its planned TV reservation a little while ago, and while there have been reports that they'd put some money back in, Advertising Analytics tells Politico that the total cut is $1.2 million. (The RGA did still launch a new ad against Whitmer days ago.)
Polls have also consistently found Schuette in bad shape. A mid-September Mitchell Research survey for MIRS, which MIRS' Kyle Melinn kindly made available for us, finds Whitmer up 48-38; a different poll commissioned by MIRS that was conducted around the same time period by Target-Insyght gave Whitmer a similar 50-41 lead. The GOP seems to have decided that their best course of action with everything going so badly here is to try and use Nassar's crimes to smear Whitmer.