Is Livingston County following the roadmap Ottawa Impact created?

The upturned political scene in Ottawa County could be catching, experts have said — and it's possible Livingston County is the second stop on a roadmap far-right fundamentalist group Ottawa Impact started drawing in 2021.

“What (they've) done and are doing here is a blueprint for counties across America,” Rev. Matt Trewhella recently told the Ottawa County GOP.

The pastor — from Brookfield, Wisconsin — created an anti-abortion militia in the 1990s and called the murder of abortion providers "justifiable homicide." He's compared coronavirus pandemic-related mask mandates to the Holocaust.

More recently, he's been active in promoting the idea of resistance to civil authorities based on the ideas of John Calvin and the Magdeburg Confession of 1550, which called on Protestant pastors to resist political tyranny.

That idea might be gaining traction in other conservative strongholds across the state — and both supporters and opponents are organizing.

'Constitutional'

As early as 2020, majority conservative counties in Michigan began adopting resolutions declaring themselves "constitutional counties," in which local sheriffs are viewed as the highest authority and aren't beholden to state or federal law enforcement.

More than 50 of the state's 83 counties, including Livingston and Ottawa, have adopted resolutions to declare themselves second amendment “sanctuary” counties or to reaffirm their support for constitutional rights.

The movement was born from unsubstantiated claims promoted by former president Donald Trump that the 2020 election results weren't legitimate. Now, in 2023, counties like Ottawa and Livingston are passing resolutions in reaction to recently passed gun safety laws created by a Democrat-controlled Michigan Legislature.

More: Ottawa County becomes 'constitutional county' after 6 hours of divided public input

More: Livingston declared 'constitutional county' in Second Amendment reaffirmation

Although such resolutions are symbolic and have no legal basis, they establish county officials' mindsets when it comes to enforcing and funding measures passed by a higher legislative body.

“(They) do not have the ability to declare a law of the state of Michigan to be unconstitutional,” Michael McDaniel, a Western Michigan University-Thomas M. Cooley Law School Professor told WOOD TV-8.

McDaniel said the bottom line is the U.S. has a constitution, the state has a constitution and the county board has a charter. Each is meant to guarantee the others stay in their own lanes.

Extremist Groups

The Southern Poverty Law Center released a report this month labeling several "parents' rights" groups as extremist, including one with ties to the Livingston County GOP and another that almost saw a formal alliance with a school district in Ottawa County.

Moms for Liberty and the other organizations are being designated as “anti-government extremist groups" based on longstanding criteria, SPLC Intelligence Project Director Susan Corke told USA TODAY.

Jennifer Smith, who heads the Livingston County Chapter of Moms for Liberty, was elected chair of the Livingston County GOP in December to serve through 2023.

More: Moms for Liberty, with foothold in Livingston County, named 'extremist group'

More: 'Parents' rights' groups with ties to Ottawa Impact labeled extremist in new report

Meanwhile, Allendale Public Schools nearly severed its affiliation with the Michigan Association of School Boards in favor of joining the National School Boards Leadership Council, sponsored by the parents' rights group Moms for America, which also made the SPLC's "extremist" list.

The Allendale Board of Education took some board members and parents by surprise when its new Ottawa Impact-linked majority fired its longtime law firm in January in favor of a group personally tied to Ottawa Impact's founder, Joe Moss.

Ottawa Impact is itself considered an extremist group by many Ottawa County residents, although some feel the organization is reflecting values long lost.

Moss, now the chair of the Ottawa County Board of Commissioners, and self-described "parents' rights advocate" Sylvia Rhodea, now the vice chair, created the group after clashes with the county and its COVID-19 mitigation mandates in 2020 and 2021.

More: Allendale Schools walks back plan to join National School Board Leadership Council

OI-backed school board member Liz Ramey, who put forward the vote to exit MASB in favor of the NSBLC on Jan. 9, later apologized to the community on Feb. 15 for rushing the move.

“I understand there’s definitely some things that were pretty rushed and not necessarily intended to be rushed,” she said. “It was intended to be part of the organizational meeting. I also do appreciate the vote of the board to postpone things, because there were certainly things that came to light that were not known prior to."

Those things included dozens of parents making public comments at the board's meetings and work sessions about NSBLC's stance that special education students are a drain on public education resources and should be separated from the general student population.

The board ultimately decided to continue with the MASB.

Public Communications

The most recent comparison between Livingston County and Ottawa County lies in the way commissioners seek to control public communications.

Livingston County Commissioner Wes Nakagiri, who is often outspoken on conservative issues and was once a leader of the Livingston County Tea Party, has previously made comments in support of Ottawa Impact.

This week, he championed a resolution passed by the county board declaring county-appointed entities cannot promote private events or activities outside the scope of the their mission. The resolution draft came directly after the promotion of local Pride Month events in a county-sponsored newsletter.

Meanwhile, in Ottawa County, the OI-led board recently approved additional spending to create a centralized communications director position and has issued guidance to county department leaders that media inquiries and press releases must be approved by the administrator's office prior to being distributed.

A handful of residents spoke during public comment to share concerns about the new position, saying it's a move to control information and stifle communications after several critiques from OI-affiliated commissioners toward the Ottawa County Department of Public Health.

LGBTQ Community

Conservatives in both counties have focused heavily on their LGBTQ constituents.

This week in Livingston County's Hartland Consolidated Schools District, the board narrowly passed a policy change restricting what signs, posters and flags can be displayed in the district's buildings — effectively banning Pride displays.

The move drew backlash from parents claiming the conservative faction of the school board is attempting to "micromanage our LGBTQ youth completely out of sight in our schools."

In Ottawa County, similar themes are appearing, after Ottawa Impact commissioners repeatedly questioned if it was appropriate to ask county teens about their sexual health habits and orientation.

Moss also refused to approve long-promised grant funds to the Ottawa County LGBTQ nonprofit Out on the Lakeshore, as well as a nonprofit focused on a Black doula program for pregnant women.

On May 19, Moss "signed" the forms "vi coactus," Latin for "compelled by force" or "having been compelled," rather than his legal name (three days later, he re-signed them with his actual signature).

Opposition

As the parallels in conservative groups between the two counties emerge, two opposition groups have partnered to combat what they call Republican "extremism."

In April, Ottawa Integrity PAC announced a partnership with recently formed Livingston Integrity PAC. The groups have signed a memorandum of understanding, according to a joint news release, aligning their missions and agreeing to operate "under the same principles of integrity."

Ottawa Integrity became a rallying point for community members amid a wave of backlash following the actions of Ottawa Impact.

That inspired Livingston County's Julie Ohashi and Cori Charbonneau, who founded the grassroots group Hartland Truth, to join forces.

"We connected with Ottawa Integrity because they have been facing the same issues," Ohashi wrote in the joint statement with Ottawa Integrity. "We wanted to utilize their expertise in being received by moderate voters, who share a concern about where our local politics are headed.

"We need to reach out to those not necessarily aligned on all the political issues, but who want to see consensus in government in a way that works for the people, not for political ideology and culture wars."

— Sarah Leach is executive editor of The Holland Sentinel and The Livingston Daily. Contact her at sarah.leach@hollandsentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter@SentinelLeach.

This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Is Livingston County following the roadmap Ottawa Impact created?