What this Michigan man says about democracy after town ousts entire local government
A Michigan man says democracy is "still there" after his small town ousted its entire local government for approving a Chinese-linked green energy project.
"Everybody out there across America needs to step back and understand that you have the power. It's still there," Jason Kruse, Green Charter Township’s newly elected supervisor told Fox News. "Government works and your vote matters – for sure at the local level – and it's super important."
"We really need to be reminded about that every so often, that public officials work for the public," he added. "It's very nice to see that we can add to that understanding."
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After two resignations, Green Charter’s remaining five Republican officials were recalled and promptly kicked out of their offices in a Tuesday special election. The rural community of 3,219 pushed out its governing board after its members ignored residents’ concerns and approved plans for Chinese battery company Gotion High-tech Co. to build a multibillion-dollar electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant in their area.
"It really is a sad thing to have to go through a recall," Kruse said. "But that's our democratic process, and we chose to invoke that."
Plans for the $2.36 billion project were announced last year and received support from Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other Michigan Democrats who touted the 2,300 jobs the plant would create.
Green Charter residents opposed the project, Kruse said, and voiced concerns about building the facility on agricultural land and about the company's connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
"We were asking, ‘please, listen to us, please,’ we're begging them," Kruse said. "But it was a moot point with them."
Kruse said his predecessors rejected all appeals to hold a vote on the matter or further seek public opinion, and asserted they were "pushing this plan through."
The board had previously served in the best interest of the community, but their unwavering support for the project drew skepticism from some, said Kruse.
"There was a lot of questions," he told Fox News. "We wondered, ‘well, are they bought and paid for by this company? Were they promised incentives somehow?’ We'll never know that."
Kruse led a grassroots movement to recall the entire seven-person board, creating an informational campaign and had a third-party independent survey done to measure support for the Gotion project.
"We don't want to stop growth in our community," Kruse said. "But we want the right growth, and we want to make sure that we're not working with hostiles."
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Gotion leadership has denied allegiance to the CCP and said it has no influence on the company’s North American subsidiary, which established its Silicon-Valley-based headquarters in 2014.
"We are a multinational company and don’t believe in political posturing and are still committed to bringing thousands of jobs to the state of Michigan," Gotion told News Nation.
However, the company’s plans for the Michigan facility, and another in Illinois, have drawn scrutiny from Republicans. In September, Senator Marco Rubio and GOP representatives from both states urged the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review the Gotion’s ties to the CCP.
The lawmakers pointed out Gotion High-Tech’s founder Li Zhen and his son were members of CCP organizations and that the parent company’s bylaws vow to "carry out Party activities."
"What we realized through all this is that whether it's Democrat or Republican, it’s a national security issue," Kruse said. "It’s like – we have balloons flying over our country. We have Chinese trying to start their own police forces around the country, and we want to do business with these people? That's how we view this."
Kruse won the race for supervisor with 70% of the vote, and the other incumbent challengers similarly won by large margins, he said. Green Charter's new board was sworn in on Wednesday, and their first order of business is to review the Gotion deal.
"We have a battle in this country [between] entrenched, privileged people in power against grassroots people who want their country to remain in their hands," Kruse told Fox News. "And nothing could be so evident after the fight that we've had here and the alliances that we've created throughout this fight."
"All these people that are in government should understand that the people want their voice to be heard," he added. "We want our country. We don't want to surrender to other people or other entities out there."
Gotion Inc. did not respond to Fox News' request for comment.