LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The Latest on the Michigan governor’s race (all times local):
2:30 p.m.
Michigan’s Democratic candidate for governor, Gretchen Whitmer, is calling on the state Republican Party to stop running a digital ad that accuses her of not prosecuting serial sexual abuser Larry Nassar.
A tearful Whitmer held a news conference Friday with some local prosecutors and Nassar victims. She says she is a rape survivor herself and that the ad is “a lie.”
She says no one should politicize child sexual abuse for their gain.
Her Republican opponent, state Attorney General Bill Schuette, is airing separate TV ads in which the parents of a Nassar victim praise his work to convict the disgraced former sports doctor.
Whitmer was Ingham County’s interim prosecutor in 2016. She says it was better to let Schuette’s office bring the sexual assault charges because Nassar’s crimes extended across multiple jurisdictions.
The state GOP isn’t backing down. It says the ad “correctly” states that Whitmer had the opportunity to prosecute Nassar but failed to do so.
___
10:20 a.m.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gretchen Whitmer is denying the Michigan Republican Party’s allegation that she refused to prosecute Larry Nassar for sexual assaults.
The GOP makes the attack in a digital ad, days after Republican Bill Schuette launched TV ads in which a victim’s parents praise the attorney general’s work to convict the former doctor at Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, a Whitmer ally, calls the charge “a lie.”
MSU police chief Jim Dunlap told The Detroit News last year that when Whitmer was Ingham County’s interim prosecutor, she wanted to proceed with child porn charges against Nassar but not sex assault charges. Whitmer has said MSU never gave her relevant police reports before Schuette correctly took jurisdiction because the assaults occurred in two counties.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.