House candidate Steve Marino retracts claims from secret recordings

LANSING --  In conversations secretly recorded by state Democrats,  a former lobbyist now running for the state House claimed a powerful lawmaker pressured him to pay a huge bar bill for a family wedding and said he paid a bar tab and arranged a taxi for another appropriations chairman who was intoxicated.

But when confronted about the statements on Friday, Republican Steve Marino said the recordings are full of "gross mischaracterizations ... by me."

Marino, a Macomb County commissioner who was a registered lobbyist from 2013 to 2015, told the Free Press that despite the way he described the events, they did not involve him personally. Instead, the stories were composites patched together from events he had witnessed or heard about over the years, in some cases through secondhand or thirdhand sources, he said.

"I retract my statements and apologize," said Marino, who is seeking the House seat in the 24th District formerly held by Rep. Anthony Forlini, R-Harrison Township, who is term-limited.

"I didn't know I was being taped," and "was just trying to illustrate some of the silliness" that goes on in Lansing, Marino said.

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Michigan Democratic Party Chairman Brandon Dillon, who arranged for a campaign tracker to secretly record the conversations at campaign coffee hours Marino held in his district, said the charges Marino makes are disturbing and potentially show violations of state lobbying laws. He said the Secretary of State or others should investigate which parts are true.

"He's either a sleazy lobbyist who doesn't abide by the rules, or he's a serial and bizarre liar," said Dillon, who plans to release the recordings, which were made available to the Free Press on Friday, at a news conference today.

Marino characterizes one of the stories as illustrating "a day in the life" of a Lansing lobbyist.

In a recording Michigan Democrats say was made Dec. 7 at a coffee hour Marino held at a restaurant in St. Clair Shores, Marino tells someone he apparently believes is a constituent about an incident in which a lawmaker pressed him to pick up a wedding bar tab.

"The Senate appropriations chair, about two and a half years ago, who is no longer in office, he called me up," Marino says in the recording. "He said, 'I forgot my wallet. I'm at my daughter's wedding. I'm wondering if you or your multi-client ... could come and pick up the bar tab.' "

In the recording, Marino says it isn't just any wedding, but "a Jewish wedding," and "they go all out." He said he didn't even have enough credit to pay the bill, which he didn't quantify.

Marino says he first made sure he hadn't misunderstood: "Excuse me, Senator?"

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He says the senator repeated: "I need you to come up here and pick up the bar bill at my daughter's wedding."

Marino says in the recording that he called up his multi-client lobbying firm, Campaign Finance Strategies, and asked: "What am I supposed to do?" He says he was told "We'll take care of it." Marino says he expressed surprise at that and was told: "'Oh, he's going to pay us back.' "

Sen. Roger Kahn, who is Jewish and no longer in the Legislature, was the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee at the time Marino referenced and said the story is false. Kahn said he didn't even have a daughter who got married anywhere close to the time referenced by Marino, and neither of his daughter's weddings were Jewish weddings.

"I don't understand why anyone would do anything like this," Kahn said. "I'm an innocent bystander."

Marino, in a message e-mailed to the Free Press about an hour after first responding during a telephone interview, said: "I was simply relating a Lansing urban legend to someone I believed was a constituent concerned about campaign finance reform."

He said, "the fact that it was so believable, even to paid Democratic operatives, illustrates how desperately we need reform of our campaign finance and electoral systems. It's unfortunate that Democrats feel the need to lie about their intentions in order to distract voters from the real issues."

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In another recording, which Michigan Democrats said  was made on the same day at the same location, Marino says "a lot of legislators are raging drunks up in Lansing," and "it's bad."

Marino then describes an encounter with current House Appropriations Chairman Al Pscholka, which he says happened about a month and a half earlier. He says Pscholka was intoxicated and needed to get home and Marino called another lawmaker to find out where Pscholka lived so he could arrange for a taxi.

"What about my bar tab?" Marino says Pscholka asked.

"I'm like, I got it — don't worry about it," Marino says on the tape.

Marino said has had "a beverage" with Pscholka in the past, but that the allegations he made in the recording that Pscholka was intoxicated and that Marino paid his bar tab were false.

Pscholka did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages Friday.

Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.

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