Over 562K signatures filed for proposal to ban campaign spending by utilities, state contractors

Leaders and volunteers from the Michiganders for Money Out of Politics ballot petition campaign gathered outside the Michigan Bureau of Elections Wednesday to turn in over 562,000 signatures to put a proposal on the November ballot to ban utility companies and government contractors from making campaign contributions.

“This systemic corruption that we’re fighting is a bipartisan problem that today we meet with a nonpartisan solution, and the signatures that we turn in today represent the will of 562,068 Michigan voters,” Sean McBrearty, an environmental activist who serves as a co-chair of Michiganders for Money Out of Politics, said during a press conference hosted just before officially submitting the petitions.

Both McBrearty and Christy McGillivray, the other co-chair of the initiative and the executive director of Voters Not Politicians, emphasized that this is not a partisan question — that volunteer signature-gatherers ranged in political position from MAGA Republicans to Democratic Socialists.

“Here’s the truth,” McGillivray said. “The corrupting influence of money has kept our state government from serving us. Politicians have been serving their mega donors instead of voters.”




https://michiganadvance.com/2026/05/27/over-562k-signatures-filed-for-proposal-to-ban-campaign-spending-by-utilities-state-contractors/