MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- Conservative group Americans for Prosperity-Michigan, which offered up to 15 gallons of gasoline for $1.84 per gallon to the first 150 motorist in line, made stops in Mount Morris Township and in Byron Center during the first week of October. The group, as part of the national organization's "Obama's Failing Agenda" bus tour, will also be stopping in Detroit, Annie Patnaude, deputy state director for AFP-Michigan, told MLive.com.
Other state chapters of AFP have been holding similar events around the country.
"We're working on getting a station lined up to do another one in the Metro-Detroit area in the upcoming weeks," she said. "We don't have a date scheduled yet, but we're hoping to get a date and a station lined up to have the event sometime in the next two weeks."
When the group went to Byron Center and Mount Morris, many local residents saw it as an opportunity to cash in on savings that haven't been seen at the pump since 2008.
The organization said it uses these events as opportunities to distribute information and bring awareness to its agenda.
"We have to remember that it was just three-and-a-half short years ago when Obama took office that gas was just $1.84 a gallon," Scott Hagerstrom, state director for AFP-Michigan, told the news outlet. "We want President Obama to stop his failed policies and implement policies that will bring the price of gas back down."
"We were very pleased with the events even though they were chaotic," Patnaude said of the first two Michigan events. "I was surprised at how many people said that they agree with Obama, but they also agreed with us and what we presented. It felt good for us to be able to give gas to people for $1.84. I think that it was a good way to highlight an important issue that is obviously on people's hearts and minds."
Albert Price, professor and director of the Masters of Public Administration program at the University of Michigan-Flint, disagreed with Patnaude. Price, who identified himself as politically progressive, said that he doesn't think the events are successes for AFP and that they don't help the organization further its agenda. Instead, he told MLive.com, the events will expose the group's "false agenda."
Patnaude said that the group "is not anti-Obama," but its members don't agree with his policies on energy. She said that AFP has a history of opposing what it says are "unfair tax laws" by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder as well as former President George W. Bush.
She said that these events really serve as a wakeup call because people have been getting accustomed to paying so much for gasoline
"I don't think I even realized how much people do care," Patnaude said. "We've sort of become used to paying these high prices at the pump, but this was a great example that people really do care about lowering gas prices."
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