State House candidate Steve Marino (R) 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.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/11/house-candidate-steve-marino-retracts-claims-secret-recordings/90129224/

[font color=330099]I can't believe that a Republican lied.[/font]