Department of State begins to destroy '94 candidates' records DETROIT (AP) - The secretary of state's office is shredding all of the campaign-finance records of candidates for state office filed during the 1994 election. Among the campaign-finance records are those of Secretary of State Candice Miller, who said she would prefer to keep them around. But in a practice repeated since 1976, when a law requiring the state to destroy most campaign-finance records after five years was passed, Miller's office has begun destroying the financial history of the 1994 election. "Our legal staff tells me that the Department of State does not have the luxury of ignoring mandatory provisions of law," Miller spokesperson Liz Boyd said. Websites listing 1994 contributions to candidates for the Legislature, secretary of state and attorney general, and political action committees, have been deleted. The destruction of paper records "is imminent," Boyd said. The law also applies to countywide offices, municipal mayors and city councils. Records for judges or state board members, who serve terms longer than five years, are kept one year longer than the length of their terms. None of the other 15 largest states in the U.S. destroy their campaign-finance records, the Detroit Free Press reported yesterday. Some archive the records permanently. "It is the most ridiculous law," said Karen Holcomb-Merrill, Michigan director of the citizen watchdog group Common Cause. "We are very much opposed to wiping out history every five years." In 1987, Michigan State Police investigating a bribery charge against a state legislator were forced to ask Common Cause for assistance. The legislator's campaign-finance records were no longer available from the secretary of state's office. Common Cause, however, keeps a collection of the records. Holcomb-Merrill said the lack of such state-archived records prevents the public from keeping track of the connection between money and legislation in politics. A bill requiring the secretary of state's office to keep campaign-finance records for 15 years passed in the state House last April on a 106-0 vote. The bill is currently sitting in the state Senate's Government Operations Committee, chaired by state Sen. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Livonia). "I think the basis for campaign finance is full disclosure and full accessibility, and you can't have full accessibility if the records are destroyed after an inadequate amount of time," said state Rep. Scott Shackleton (R-Sault Ste. Marie), who introduced the House bill. Shackleton's bill requires the state to keep records of campaigns that received at least $50,000 in contributions for 15 years. Originally on page 3A in the 1-27-2000 issue of the Daily.