The Detroit Free Press is reporting that GOP Chair Saul Anuzis believes that Governor Granholm’s re-election campaign violated the law when it used the email addresses of those who signed an online gas price petition (the one I wrote about here) to ask for support of Granholm in this fall’s election. The GOP chair also stated that the Granholm campaign had “violated the privacy of citizens who signed the petitions, who had been assured the names would not be used for any other purpose.”

Granholm’s spokesman, Chris Dewitt, refutes the claims Anuzis has made as being “long on rhetoric and short on facts.” The email addresses were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. It is not known whether or not the Republicans received the same list or if they have/had plans to use those email addresses.

Sounds to me like both sides are slinging some good ol’ rhetoric. A novel idea would be if both Republicans and Democrats came up and spoke out against such behavior. Basically, it seems like the re-election campaign of Granholm’s spammed the good people who only provided their email addresses to sign a petition to do something about high gas prices. I say thumbs down to both parties for wanting (and the Republicans supposedly wanting) to use this information for their respective parties’ gain.