Who is behind Ben Velderman, the guy who has been stalking me?

Fred,

I’ve been following your saga with Kyle Olsen and the EAG bunch.  EAG is a well-funded off-shoot of the Mackinac Center in Michigan.  It was started in West Michigan and usually focuses on inflamitory, sensational news stories.  They like to follow people around with cameras, FOIA emails, etc…

Here is some background on the Mackinac Center.

Click to access mackinaccenter-thetruth.pdf

The Mackinac Center is part of the State Policy Network (SPN), a network of state-based think tanks patterned after the Heritage Foundation.

EAG has been going into Northern Ohio and Indiana, and now apparently Illinois.

1. EAG is not really a group. It’s two guys. Two very partisan guys who obviously dislike public school teachers.

2. EAG’s real agenda is to weaken and dismantle public education and public schools.

3. EAG is just a repackaged front for several existing groups that have led “parochiaid” campaigns — roundly rejected by Michigan voters — to divert tax dollars from our public schools to private and religious schools.

4. Kyle Olson claims to be non partisan, but he is a highly partison Republican Party activist and an officer in the Michigan Republican Party. EAG was incorporated by Eric Doster, chief legal counsel for the state Republican Party. It’s OK to be Republican, but it’s wrong for the EAG to claim it is nonpartisan.

5. They chastise those who publicly support public officials while refusing to disclose who is funding their own activities.

Let me know if you need anything, MEA (Michigan Education Association) has been dealing with EAG for some time now.

Dan