Lt. Gov. Calley gives Selweski a smack down

Lt. Gov. Brian Calley was none too happy when I reported on my blog Sunday that he was scheduled to attend a fundraiser for a candidate who has been called a racist and has backing from the infamous Dave Agema.

Calley contacted me Sunday afternoon and said that he would not be at the Monday event for Triston Cole, a Traverse City area Republican running for the state House. The lieutenant governor's name was then quickly removed from the online invitation to the Cole fundraiser.

But when fresh photos of Calley with Cole showed up online on Monday, I contacted the LG and questioned why he had been adamant that he would not show for Cole's campaign party but he attended a separate event with the candidate.

His terse response asserted that I was unfairly criticizing Cole and inaccurately implying that Calley cancelled his fundraiser appearance due to the issues raised on my blog. The LG said the decision not to attend was made "long before" the blog post and he did not know why Cole's invitation had continued to list Calley as the featured speaker.

Here's a portion of Calley's email message to me, in which he explains how he and candidate Cole appeared in photos together:  

There were several legislators and I that were invited to a meeting (on Monday) with deer farmers from all across the state.Good folks that wanted to share about their industry.

Furthermore, I do not have any policy of disassociating with people on the basis that someone else supported them. I've really never heard of that kind of criteria.  Am I to go through and identify everyone that Dave Agema has supported and create a black list? 

I also reject your premise that Triston Cole is "racist". Are you really willing to go that far in attacking a person based on the claims you cited? I might have a weakness in seeing the best in people -- I have even defended you on a few occasions -- but I'm pretty surprised at your aggressiveness in publishing such a claim. Have you ever met him? What are you basing such a definitive and personal conclusion on? I hope it's more than what you cited in your blog.

Just for the record, the reference to Cole making allegedly racist remarks was based on a Petoskey News story which reported in July that the 2010 comments had resurfaced as an issue in the 105th House District GOP primary.