LANSING (Dec. 30, 2020) — As House Speaker Lee Chatfield (R-Levering) gave his farewell address on the floor of the chamber Dec. 21, he had a special mention for two members of his staff.
“The truth is, I would not be where I am without you and I would not be who I am without you,” he said of Anne and Rob Minard, who he called family.
An archetypal power couple, the Minards hold two of the most senior positions in the Michigan House of Representatives. Rob is majority chief of staff, the most influential position in the House that doesn’t require getting elected, while Anne is director of external affairs. They are also two of the highest paid. At $164,000 a year, Rob Minard has a larger salary than Gov. Gretcher Whitmer, while Anne Minard earns $111,000, according to House disclosures.
At the same time, the Minards have also run a side business, a consulting firm named Victor Strategies. An investigation by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network found that since 2015 the firm has been paid nearly $1.1 million by Republican legislators’ campaigns and the PACs connected to them, at times for vaguely-described services or at apparently exorbitant rates.
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