NOTE: This article has been updated to include comments by Scio Twp. Trustee John Reiser.

by P.D. Lesko

Public records show that on May 17, 2024 Fix Scio (a Super PAC) was formed by James Dries, a former Scio Twp. trustee. The Super PAC’s July 26, 2024 campaign finance statement revealed that of the $11,550 raised by Dries’s Super PAC (one of two Super PACs in Washtenaw County), James Dries donated $525. Scio Twp.’s outgoing Supervisor Will Hathaway donated $6,000 in cash and another $5,037.50 in donated services. Records show Hathaway was the only donor of goods and services (website maintenance).

The Fix Scio Super PAC was registered by Dries, but in large part funded by Will Hathaway. The Super Pac’s website was used to attack Hathaway’s political targets, Supervisor candidate Jillian Kerry and Clerk Jessica Flintoft, who was running for re-election.

The Fix Scio Super PAC created by James Dries was a classic “front group.”

A front group is an organization that purports to represent one agenda (Fix Scio) while in reality it serves some other party or interest whose sponsorship is hidden or rarely mentioned (Will Hathaway). Front groups are organizations engaged in manipulative efforts to shape public opinion, or to influence voters. Accuracy in Media is one example of a front group. The shadowy way front groups operate makes it difficult to know whether a seemingly independent grassroots organization is actually representing some other entity. 

The Koch Brothers have multiple climate denial front groups. The tobacco lobby makes use of front groups, as do corporate interests that oppose living wages, reproductive rights for women and front groups that tout Scientology. Front groups are viewed as anti-Democratic and groups that don’t serve up “facts,” but rather serve the hidden agenda of their organizers/sponsors. 

The Fix Scio Super PAC front group expended funds in support of their slate of candidates who ran for four open trustee seats and the open Supervisor job. Incumbent trustee John Reiser, a lawyer, won.

Reiser reported taking in $14,477 for his bid to be re-elected to a job that pays $10,000 per year. Reiser donated $4,800 to his campaign. Supervisor Will Hathaway donated $1,225 to Reiser. In total, Reiser spent $13,878 on his campaign. The Fix Scio Super PAC campaign finance forms state the PAC spent $1,017.30 on printing and mailing for Reiser.

Reiser said Fix Scio sent out a trio of mailings in which he was mentioned, but that he did not request the PAC’s support and did not know the mailings had been paid for by the PAC on his behalf until he’d received the mailings.

When reached by phone, James Dries was belligerent. When asked about the $1,017.30 expenditures on multiple candidates, eventually he said, “That money was for mailings. We followed all the campaign finance laws.”

This may not be the case.

Will Hathaway donated $1,225 to multiple Fix Scio candidates. His donations may have violated the Michigan Campaign Finance Act, as Hathaway was the primary funder of the Fix Scio Super PAC and its website. Hathaway’s donations to the individual candidates could be evidence that there was cooperation between the Super PAC Hathaway funded in large part, the Fix Scio website he funded, and the Fix Scio candidates on whom the Super PAC expended controlled funds.

In 2008, while a Scio Twp. Trustee, Dries was reported to the Michigan Elections Bureau for allegedly filing a false campaign finance statement for a PAC called Friends of Scio. The complainants alleged Dries owed them money and had failed to reflect the owed money as a debt on the PAC’s campaign finance forms. According to MLive.com, “Dries admitted he’d made an error, filed an amended report and repaid Knol $798.05 and Ream $500. He also repaid Trustee Jean King and Supervisor Charlie Nielsen for lesser amounts they had loaned the PAC.In addition, he filed an amended campaign statement on Jan. 17, which shows the debt.”

Scio Twp. Supervisor-elect Jillian Kerry has repeatedly referred to a “Good Ole Boy” culture in Scio politics. She includes James Dries and Will Hathaway among the Good Ole Boys.

In 2022, Will Hathaway appointed James Dries to the Scio Twp. Compensation Committee, and trustees approved the appointment. In 2023, the five-person Compensation Committee raised Hathaway’s pay, and hiked the annual compensation for the trustees by 25 percent to $10,000. The Township Treasurer saw her pay jump $25,000 to $90,000. The Township Clerk’s pay was hiked from $84,000 to $99,403.

The Fix Scio Super PAC front group placed print ads in local publications in order to drive people to the FixScio2024.org website.

The FixScio2024.org website focused on Jillian Kerry’s legal entanglements. For example, the FixScio2024.org website’s front page included links to media coverage about Kerry’s arraignment on felony charges. However Dries (and Hathaway) did not reveal to Scio voters that Kerry’s legal entanglements could be traced directly to Will Hathaway, the majority funder behind the Fix Scio Super PAC front group, and the funder of the FixScio2024.org website.

Public records show that in Nov. 2023, Will Hathaway filed a complaint with the Washtenaw County Sheriff against Jillian Kerry for allegedly “hacking” into his Outlook.com email account on a shared, Township-owned laptop. As it turned out, Hathaway had downloaded the Outlook.com email client to a shared laptop, then left his email account logged in.

Hathaway, in his police report, alleged that in Nov. 2023, Kerry (while using the shared laptop) had resent one of his emails to Twp. Clerk Jessica Flintoft, as well as a Google invitation. In June 2024, County Prosecutor Eli Savit authorized charges, in the middle of the primary election season. Kerry, in a public statement, alleges the email and invite somehow sent themselves when she logged onto the Township’s shared laptop computer.

Kerry’s explanation becomes more credible in light of an email sent by Hathaway. On Jan. 31, 2024 (just two months after Hathaway filed charges against Kerry). Hathaway sent an email to the members of the Scio Twp. Transit Advisory Committee in which he wrote:

“Sorry. This email seems to have sent itself again when I logged on just now.”

It’s not known whether the email had been sent from Hathaway’s desktop (web-based) Outlook.com email client, his personal computer, which he said he uses for Township business, including email, or from the Township’s shared Dell laptop’s Outlook.com email client which Hathaway had installed.

When asked about the Jan. 31, 2024 email in which he says his email “sent itself again when I logged on,” Hathaway wrote in an email that he didn’t see what the Jan. 31, 2024 email incident had to do with the Nov. 2023 email incident.

While the Fix Scio Super PAC’s July 26, 2024 campaign finance disclosure revealed the bulk of the group’s funding had come from Hathaway, that information was hidden from the public. The Super PAC was formed in May 2024, and Dries was not required to file a financial disclosure until July 26, 2024.

Jillian Kerry claims that the Fix Scio Super PAC mailers and smear tactics angered Scio voters. She says this is reflected in the fact all but one of the Super PAC’s candidates lost. Kerry won with 60 percent of the vote. Clerk Flintoft was re-elected by a comfortable margin.

Campaign finance records show that Fix Scio spent $1,017.30 on printed materials for incumbent Scio Trustee John Reiser, and challengers John Boyle (Supervisor candidate), Terri Merte (Clerk candidate), Charles Nielsen (Trustee candidate), Mark Brazeau (Trustee candidate), and Judy Moenck (Trustee candidate and member of the Scio Twp. Compensation Committee).

“I ran a clean campaign,” said Judy Moenck, who won her primary election. She also said she ran an “independent” campaign.

John Reiser, when reached by phone said, “I ran my own campaign. I was not affiliated with Fix Scio, and you might argue that I won despite of their support.” Reiser said he was committed to working collaboratively with all of the Township’s elected officials.

Jillian Kerry says she recruited Moenck to run. “She came to our Trustee meetings and was very well informed.”

Judy Moenck was an elected library trustee in Franklin, MI. She also served as an elected trustee in Franklin, MI. On her campaign website, Moenck says she “served on the Compensation Committee, Finance/Budget Committee and Human Resources Committee” while a Franklin trustee.

Kerry added that Moenck had eventually affiliated herself with the Fix Scio group, but then toward the end of the primary campaign season declared she’d disaffiliated from the group.

Jillian Kerry says that Good Old Boy leadership has focused on consolidating personal power, instead of more practical concerns. “Our Fire Dept. is falling apart; it’s way behind. We need a new station, and our water and sewer facilities haven’t been properly maintained. All of this stuff could have been prevented. It’s time to focus on Scio Township’s needs and work toward improving the lives of our residents.” Jillian Kerry also says it’s time to work to get the Township’s finances into shape. In two years running, Scio Twp. was cited by auditors as having weak internal financial controls and violations of “state statute.”