Who is Molly Matthews?
Earlier this afternoon I was forwarded an email a handful or times in which someone by the name of Molly Matthews mentions me in a press release taking a swipe at Senator Mike Bishop.
Her group, which I assume is just her with a “Draft Mike Bishop for Congress”, email address implies that the Bishop campaign is seeking the support of the Log Cabin Republicans because they did not request that my “Mike Bishop for AG” Facebook group be taken down.
It appears clear to me what the Senate Majority leader is doing, I’m not sure what Ms. Matthews doesn’t understand about that.
Her “group” is just serving as a means to trivialize Bishop’s run, however I think it is just trivializing Ms. Matthews herself. Everyone knows what she is up to. It’s a very lame attempt at political manuvering.
I wonder how often this woman sends out an email taking a swipe at someone that she cares so much about that she even went as far to form a group supporting them.
Below is the text of the email that Ms Matthews sent out today:
Statement from Draft State Senator Mike Bishop for Congress
Contact: Molly Matthews, draftbishopforcongress@gmail.com
A group of Republicans from across the 9th Congressional District and Michigan as a whole have started a movement to draft State Senator Mike Bishop to run against freshman Congressman Gary Peters. This effort spawned a Facebook group last week, which has been targeted by Bishop’s taxpayer-funded chief of staff, Matt Miner.
In a MIRS article on Friday about the grassroots-led movement, Miner complained that an “unauthorized image of Bishop” was used on the “Draft State Senator Mike Bishop for Congress” group on Facebook. This allegation is absurd, as the picture used is from Bishop’s taxpayer-funded Senate website and is routinely used by the media. Additionally, government documents and images cannot, by law, be copyrighted and remain in the public domain for fair use by citizens.
“It is unbelievable that Senator Bishop’s taxpayer-funded partisan operatives are trying to silence Republican activists,” Molly Matthews said. “We just wanted to encourage Bishop to run for Congress; he would make a great representative in Washington.”
Matthews created the Facebook group, but her account has been deleted by Facebook with no explanation. She suspects Miner was behind it, as he told MIRS that complaints were filed with Facebook.
She also notes it is odd that Bishop’s operatives are complaining about her group, yet they have taken no action against homosexual activist and Bay City resident Joe Sylvester, who created an unofficial “Mike Bishop for Attorney General” group on Facebook that used the same photo as her group.
“It’s odd that Senator Bishop wants the support of Log Cabin Republicans, but not the support of conservative Republicans in southeastern Michigan,” Matthews said.
Below is the text of the MIRS article that just came out a couple of minutes ago on the issue:
Faux Bishop Facebook Group Goes Dark
The “Draft State Senator Mike BISHOP for Congress in 2010″ Facebook group is no more.Controversy erupted last week over a new “group” dedicated to Bishop (R-Rochester) because his campaign was not affiliated with it (See “Bishop A No-Go For Congress,” 5/15/09).
Team Bishop is swinging back hard against rumors that the Senate Majority is interested in anything else but the 2010 Attorney General race, even though MIRS has learned that some inside Bishop’s camp are nervous that some institutional support is hardening around former Court of Appeals Judge Bill SCHUETTE.
Now, the unofficial Bishop For Congress site has gone dark and the alleged founder, Molly MATTHEWS, sent out two press releases today blaming Bishop Chief of Staff Matt MINER, who had asked Facebook to remove it. She also included some disparaging remarks about Bishop and GOP activist Joe SYLVESTER, who started a “Bishop for AG Facebook” group, which Miner said seemed odd from someone claiming to support the Senate Majority Leader.
“It’s kind of weird that to perpetuate this and take it to the next level and send out a release,” Miner said.
Matthews refused MIRS‘ request for an interview, e-mailing: “I have no further comment other than what was published in the statement that I sent out earlier this morning.” Neither press release included a phone number.
A Facebook message to Matthews attributed to Sen. Wayne KUIPERS (R-Holland) stated: “Well, if you get him to run for Congress I may be serving with him there. I will be announcing soon a run for a congressional seat on the west side of the state.” Kuipers and Bishop competed against each other for majority leader in 2006.
Matthews’ Facebook page is gone, but it had stated she graduated from Rochester Adams High School and had pictures of someone who looked her early 20s. Bishop supporter Copper RIZZO, also an Adams graduate, went through 10 years of yearbooks and talked with school officials. There is no record of her, he said.
MIRS talked to several GOP insiders today and no one had heard of Matthews. Glenn CLARK, chair of the 9th District Republican Committee, said he doesn’t know her and has yet to find anyone who does.
“Nobody knows this person,” he said. “This is just petty political agendas at work here.”
Sylvester sees a big difference between his group to support Bishop and the pro-Congress group, which he sees as working against him.
“I don’t know Ms. Matthews, nor have I ever even heard of her,” he said. “I do find it funny that in her infinite wisdom she fails to understand the difference between supporting someone’s decision and trying to form a grassroots movement to trivialize and undermine the Senators run for Attorney General.”
Bishop is also running against Sen. Bruce PATTERSON (R-Canton) for Attorney General. In the 9th, the Republican field lining up against U.S. Rep. Gary PETERS (D-Bloomfield Twp.) is facing former congressional aide Paul WELDAY and former Rep. Andrew “Rocky” RACZKOWSKI. Former Sen. David HONIGMAN said he is considering a run, as well.
The real Mike Bishop announced this weekend he is now Twittering @senmikebishop, Rizzo confirmed.
