By Craig Mauger, cmauger@detroitnews.com
U.S. Rep. John James, a Republican candidate to be Michigan’s next governor, promised Tuesday to release detailed personal financial disclosures from himself and his top appointees, to conduct an audit of state spending and to launch a commission to study the past enforcement of COVID-19 restrictions.
The plans were part of a wide-ranging, six-page “Freedom from Corruption Agenda” that was unveiled by the James campaign, the first detailed policy plan of his bid for Michigan’s top political office.
If elected in November, James of Shelby Township said he would establish a panel to study and report on citations, fines and license suspensions that resulted from policies aimed at combating the COVID-19 pandemic, which occurred primarily during Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s first term.
Fines against individuals and small businesses that acted in good faith would be refunded, the James campaign said in its plan. Michigan’s major COVID-19 restrictions on public gatherings and mask wearing, which were a topic of intense consternation and protests, ended in July 2021, more than four years ago.
James would also seek an independent audit of the state’s voter rolls, support expanding Michigan’s open records standard to lawmakers and the governor’s office and ban “all fundraising by state officials” while the Legislature is in session. Currently, state lawmakers routinely hold fundraisers for their political accounts on session days in offices a few blocks from the Capitol.
“Lansing is a mess — an endless cycle and revolving door of corruption and dishonesty,” James said in a statement about his new plan. “Authentic freedom for the citizens of Michigan can only be achieved by restoring trust in our leaders.”
Michigan is one of two states that exempt lawmakers and the governor’s office from policies — often called freedom of information acts or FOIA — that require most government records to be available to public inspection.
There have been many attempts over the years to expand the law in Michigan, but those efforts have failed. Currently, Michigan House Speaker Matt Hall, R-Richland Township, has refused to consider FOIA bills that passed the Democratic-led Senate in January 2025.
The new James plan also included what the Republican candidate’s campaign called the COVID Legal Enforcement Accountability and Relief (CLEAR) Initiative. It would “confront the overreach, double standards and lasting harm caused by the government’s enforcement of COVID-19 mandates from 2020 onward,” the agenda released by the James campaign said.
“By exposing the truth, correcting past wrongs and passing structural reforms, the CLEAR Initiative aims to restore integrity to public leadership and prevent this kind of abuse from ever happening again,” the campaign statement said.
James, who is in a crowded race for the Republican nomination for governor, also contended that he is the “only candidate for governor who is a true outsider to Lansing” and vowed to “lead by example” in fighting to clean up state government.
As a second-term member of the U.S. House, James has to file detailed and annual personal financial disclosures about his investments, outside sources of incomes and travel payments funded by interest groups to screen for conflicts of interest.
If elected governor, James said he would follow the same standard from the U.S. House and would “require the same standard for all senior appointed officials in the executive branch.”
Under a ballot proposal approved by voters in 2022, Michigan officeholders have to submit annual personal financial disclosures but the information they provide, under state requirements, is much less detailed than what members of Congress have to release.
James said he would conduct a comprehensive audit of all state government expenditures for the past 10 years “to root out fraud, waste and abuse.”
That time period would appear to reach back to Republican former Gov. Rick Snyder’s second term and would cover the expenditure of billions of dollars in surplus funds during the COVID-19 pandemic by Whitmer’s administration. Republicans completely controlled the Legislature for six of those ten years.
Democratic Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office has launched investigations into the use of a handful of earmarks that were provided by the Legislature in recent years.
A separate audit, sought by James, would examine Michigan’s voter rolls to “eliminate non-citizens from voting.”
In April, Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s office said it had conducted a months-long review and identified 15 individuals who allegedly were not U.S. citizens but still cast ballots in the November 2024 presidential election.
Benson is Michigan’s top election official and, like James, is running for governor this year.
The new plan from James also aims to ban taxpayer-funded lobbying expenditures by public entities, like cities, schools, townships and counties, and prohibit Michigan public officials from signing non-disclosure agreements in their official capacities.
Secrecy agreements signed by some public officials, covering potential economic development projects, became points of debate and topics of TV ads during Michigan’s 2024 campaign.
