Snyder PAC to Back Like-Minded Candidates

Gov. Rick Snyder announced his Relentless Positive Action PAC at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference last weekend. (Photo: Bill Pugliano, Getty Images/AFP)

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Between presidential stump speeches, Gov. Rick Snyder spent time at last week’s Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference building support for a political action committee supporting candidates who think more like him.

Called the Relentless Positive Action PAC, it will financially support candidates who are “common-sense problem solvers.”

“Relentless positive action has helped make Michigan the comeback state and it’s important that we stay on this trajectory for years to come because our work is not yet complete,” Snyder said in the release announcing the PAC. “The Relentless Positive Action PAC will support candidates and elected officials who are common-sense problem solvers willing to take on the toughest challenges facing Michigan and our nation.”

The initial focus will be on candidates for the GOP-controlled Michigan House who are committed to fiscal responsibility, long-term economic development, urban revival and education initiatives.

At least 39 open seats, 22 of them currently held by Republicans, will be up for grabs in the 2016 Michigan House race. Lt. Gov. Brian Calley is said to be playing a key role in the PAC, sometimes recruiting candidates who share the administration’s goals.

The goal, Calley told Michigan Radio, is “to ensure that we have candidates that are running for office that maybe the regular candidate wouldn’t have produced.”

“I would give Rick Snyder himself as an example,” Calley said.

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Snyder, whose disdain for politics is no secret, said the PAC responds to what is a “broken political culture” in the United States.

“The best answer for America is to get someone that says, ‘It’s not about fighting and blaming people. Here’s the problem, here’s the solution. Let’s go,’ “ he said.

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