Mystery group circulates health petitions — and attacks Republicans

A nonprofit with undisclosed backing wants to change city charters in six Michigan cities to create advisory health care committees
In the process of collecting petition signatures, the group is also attacking Republican lawmakers seeking re-election
City governments haven’t heard from the organization, Community Action Michigan, about the efforts

LANSING — A nonprofit with unknown financial backing is fanning out across six Michigan cities with petitions to change local charters — and give elected officials an earful on health care, a key election-year issue.

The potential ballot proposals seek to establish “Citizens’ Advisory Healthcare Action Committees” in Lansing, East Lansing, Kalamazoo, Portage, Battle Creek and Benton Harbor.

The bodies would “make recommendations to address prohibitive healthcare costs and healthcare inaccessibility in a biennial action plan” and measure related “actions or inactions” by state and federal lawmakers.

In collecting voter signatures, the nonprofit Community Action Michigan is also attacking two Republicans facing significant Democratic challenges as they seek re-election this fall: US Reps. Tom Barrett of Charlotte and Bill Huizenga of Holland.

“Representative Tom Barrett is failing us,” said a flyer distributed by signature collectors in Lansing. A related website contends that “Barrett works for billionaires,” citing his vote on President Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful law” that extended tax cuts while reducing future Medicaid spending.

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A consultant for Barrett’s re-election campaign questioned the group’s motivation, arguing the petition drive is “really a voter ID exercise” to “identify which voters are responsive to that messaging and gathering that data, so they can retarget them through the course of the campaign.”

Roe also defended Barrett’s record on health care, saying he has laid out reform ideas that could lower costs and “rejected any contributions from healthcare insurers.” Barrett “is pretty committed to reforming health care in a way that puts patients ahead of insurance companies’ profits,” he said.

Barrett represents Michigan’s 7th Congressional District, a toss-up that three Democrats are competing for the chance to take him on in November. In the Republican-leaning 4th Congressional District, Huizenga faces an organized challenge from Democratic state Sen. Sean McCann.

Unknown origins

Community Action Michigan, which is not related to the similarly named Michigan Community Action, registered as both a nonprofit and state political action committee in late April — hallmarks of so-called “dark money” efforts.

The only publicly identified member of the organization is nonprofit board chair Barbara Hammon, a retired nurse and trustee of Kalamazoo County’s Texas Charter Township, who was named in a press release.

“We are hurting and we’re taking action, by holding politicians like Tom Barrett accountable,” Hammon said in a statement. “If our members of Congress refuse to act and make health care more affordable, we will do it for them. Enough is enough: No more excuses, spin, and partisan gridlock.”

Attempts to reach Hammon for an interview on Thursday or Friday were unsuccessful. Byrum & Fisk, an East Lansing-based public relations firm who distributed the press release, did not immediately respond to questions about the group, including its funding sources.

Nonprofits have become common vehicles to fund ballot campaigns because they can accept unlimited donations from any source, including corporations, and aren’t required to disclose the names of their donors, hiding the origin of the money behind significant policy proposals.

The push from Community Action Michigan appears to marry issue advocacy with a concerted effort to change local government. The proposed petition language for each city has been tailored to the structure of that municipality’s charter, according to copies of the language available on their website.

The proposal

The advisory committee proposed by the petition would “create solutions for local families and small businesses to save on health care costs” — by offering recommendations to city leaders, according to the group’s literature.

If passed by voters, the “Citizens’ Action Committees” would have to meet every two years and produce a “Healthcare Action Plan” that assesses health care affordability in each city and how policies at all levels of government are impacting residents. They would require cities to “hold multiple community forums” every year to “first-hand accounts of community members’ ability to afford and access” health care, along with forums discussing policy.

City governments contacted by Bridge seemed largely unaware that charter amendment proposals were being proposed in their communities.

The public information officer in the city of Portage, Mary Beth Block, said she encountered a circulator last weekend and saw the petition, but neither she nor the city clerk had heard of it before. “We have had no formal communication from the organizers,” she said.

To get on local ballots for the Nov. 4 election, Community Action Michigan will have to collect signatures from at least 5% of the registered voters in each city and submit them to the local clerk ahead at least 90 days before the election, in early August.

Lansing, the largest city targeted, had more than 90,000 registered voters as of the 2024 election, meaning the group would need to collect more than 4,500 signatures from local voters to have a chance of making the ballot.

Like statewide ballot proposals, local ballot proposals can be rejected over small technicalities. An employee in the Lansing City Clerk’s office told Bridge Michigan their staff had not reviewed the petition. The city has rejected some petitions whose organizers hadn’t sought review before circulating.

One petition circulator told Bridge she was being paid hourly to collect signatures but would receive per-signature bonuses if she met certain thresholds.

A form on the Community Action Michigan website exhorting visitors to “sign up to join the fight” contains an agreement that signers will “receive emails, calls, and texts from Community Action Michigan and its partners and member organizations.”