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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — “I’m going to burn it down!” St. Joseph County Councilwoman Amy Drake screamed over the phone to RNM on December 8th of 2023. “Everyone knows I am a one term (councilwoman). Fuck it. I’m going to take it down with me.”
That above interaction occurred on December 8th, 2023, after I had put my hat in the ring for a position on the St. Joseph County Library Board. While the board position was to be filled by the St. Joseph County Board of Commissioners, Drake took it upon herself to demand her choice of appointee fill the seat. As soon as she learned I expressed interest, she called my cell phone screaming at the top of her lungs.
“I already have someone! You’re fucking this up! This is mine!” Drake screamed over the phone, before going into another profanity laden tirade.
According to sources, at the same time, Drake was threatening our Republican Commissioners with primaries if they didn’t put her hand-selected person onto the library board. She was also threatening to hold back council votes for potential plans to get a new County-City building, an effort which would save taxpayers millions of dollars and streamline our local government. In protest to Drake, the Commissioners re-appointed a life-long Democrat to the open board position — which was admittedly a very bad move and received critical coverage in this publication.
It turns out, this was just the beginning of Drake’s attacks on the St. Joseph County GOP, its leadership, members and REAL News Michiana. She is holding true to her threats to “burn it down” with a campaign of lies that is getting harder to keep up with by the day.
LIES ABOUT RNM AND CLIFTON FRENCH
Earlier this month, Drake put out an email to her followers stating, “Clifton French, who I have worked with over the years to provide coverage on Covid and Democrats and help him gain readership, told me he will be exposing my texts that we exchanged as friends.”
This is a flat-out lie. None of this was ever said to Drake. However, it should make everyone wonder what are those text messages? Why is she so defensive? What is she trying to cover up? Despite sending her multiple emails requesting she retract her statements, Drake doubled down with more false statements. The email chain can be read below.
I never planned to expose Amy Drake’s text messages. I never told her I was going to expose them. What I did was reach out to Drake to inquire about confirmed lies that she had told to me in order to attempt to deceive my coverage of newsworthy events, which I will get into further down in this story.
Drake is also aware of RNM’s policy that sources and their information remain confidential as long as that source does not lie to me. I cannot trust or use a source who is not being honest. I have been a journalist for nearly 20 years — if you ask any source of mine, they will tell you that I expressly describe this policy to them from the beginning. In nearly two decades, I have never had to follow through with those threats. Sadly, that ends today.
DRAKE’S PRIMARY CAUSE
Drake has decided to jump face first into the primary season, mainly advocating for St. Joseph County Council District I Candidate Andy Rutten. While RNM has repeatedly stated we will not endorse anyone in the primary, I see no problem with other people giving endorsements and campaigning for the person they support. However, Drake has decided the best way to campaign for Rutten is by attacking his conservative opponent, Kent Hizer, with vicious lies and attacks on his family.
Drake has claimed Hizer is unfit for office because he and his wife never had children. She claims he supported COVID masking and vaccination mandates, which are completely rebuked by a statement made by Hizer in 2021 as seen below — the truth is, Hizer worked with a federal task force to build overflow field hospitals during Covid. Drake has also attacked Hizer because he liked a post made by the former St. Joseph County GOP Chair and current Penn Harris Madison School Board President Chris Riley years ago. What’s dishonest about this is Drake never attacked the late Congresswoman Jackie Walorski for her open support of Chris Riley or the fact that Walorski never had children herself either.
In what appears to be a tinfoil hat conspiracy, Drake has claimed that she is giving her support to Rutten because a “cabal” of GOP leaders handpicked Hizer to primary outgoing councilmember Mark Root. Root, who has been on the council for nearly 20 years and is currently the council president, announced he would not seek re-election on February 15th.
On that day, I spoke and texted with Drake regarding Root’s decision. Drake immediately attacked me over the phone for two stories I wrote in January that were critical of Root for putting a Democrat into a leadership position on the council and later punishing a fellow Republican for voting against the move. Below are the text exchanges.
Me: “I was just told that Root dropped out of the re-election race.”
Drake: “I have no idea. Is there paperwork? That’s the only way to know for sure. I have not heard from him today… check with clerk.”
Me: “Yes — that’s where I got the info”
Drake: “So, he officially filed a withdraw? This am?”
Me: “That’s what I’m told. Did it today.”
Drake: “I will be in there later.”
Me: “How long did he serve again?”
Drake: “19 years I believe. Hope you don’t write a fuck you story.”
Me: “I’m not.”
Drake: “I’m sure the cabal will be celebrating.”
Me: “I’m writing a very basic — ‘served for such and such’ — decision comes as he is facing two primary challengers.”
Drake: “Move (sic) our party has been such fuckers to a guy who spent so much time working to get republicans elected and helped get us a majority. Nothing like backstabbing payback from your own gross side. This party is sickening… Suck (sic) power hungry egos. It’s not about votes. Mark has been a dedicated conservative. This has been about a few guys who think they are all powerful dictating what will happen if you don’t bow down and stroke their egos.”
The following morning, Drake sent an email to her followers in her “Unmask Tyranny” newsletter. In it, she extolled the leadership of Root, despite his record of attacking conservatives while promoting radical Democrats. She also attacked GOP leadership and once again brought up the “cabal” that she made up in her own mind. That email can be seen below.
After reading the email, I sent her the following message.
Me: “This message is coming to you as a friend: If you didn’t know, Root’s statement at the Clerk’s Office when he filed his paperwork (to withdraw) was ‘I saw how they treated Rita (Glenn), I’m not going to put my family through that.’ That is the most Democrat thing to say. Rita committed actual crimes. Nobody was going to accuse him of any crimes, create commercials, etc. For someone claiming to want to unite, your email this morning did nothing but divide the GOP. I’m not taking sides in the primary. However, it’s not hard to see Hizer is the obvious front runner. You just destroyed your ability to work with him. Good Job.”
Drake: “You took a side. So did I.”
Me: “I didn’t take a side Amy. I reported on issues. You didn’t like those issues being reported on. You’re sorely mistaken.”
Drake: “You choose what you report on selectively. That’s fine and you have every right. But you know as well as I do, that’s picking a side.”
Me: “That’s not true and you know it. I’m trying to help you here. You seem dead set on ruining yourself and anyone else associated with you right now.”
Drake: “Sorry my version didn’t fit your narrative.”
Me: “You have no clue how much work I’ve done in the background for you. I haven’t discussed it before. But, it’s impossible to help now.”
Drake: “I’ll just wait till the cabal comes after me and uses you as the tool.”
Weeks passed and Drake continued her attacks against Hizer. I stayed out of it and continued to state my stance as impartial, as I am friends with both Hizer and his opponent Andy Rutten. In fact, Rutten is a current advertiser on RNM. I have nothing but respect for Rutten and Hizer. I believe they are both conservative and capable of the job.
Then came the bombshell — Drake sent out another email on March 27th, describing how she had recruited Rutten to run for Root’s council seat. She claimed “Those who wanted Mark gone rallied behind the primary candidacy of Kent Hizer. Mark, frustrated with the effort against him, dropped out of the race. I asked Andy Rutten to consider running in his place, and he did.”
There’s only one problem, Rutten registered his campaign weeks before Root dropped out, filing a primary AGAINST Root. And, Drake had stated multiple times that she was unaware of Root’s decision, while attempting to get me to write stories about this fictional “cabal.”
On that day, I also reached out to Drake via text. She once again lied multiple times.
Me: “Ummm… your email this morning is confusing and contradicts your own comments before. You asked Andy to run because of Root leaving? Root hadn’t dropped out of the race when Andy signed up. In fact, you told me it was a complete surprise and you were pissed at a bunch of people for it leading to that. You are actively lying in your email to me.”
Drake: “I couldn’t speak regarding Andy when he first filed bc Mark had not made any confirmation of what he was doing for sure (despite just sending an email claiming she recruited Rutten to run for Root’s seat that he was leaving). I do not recall any conversation with you on that. I spoke to Tyler only that I remember. It wasn’t my business to share what Mark was going to do until he made a final decision.”
Me: (I sent her several screenshots of our conversation for reference) “We had a conversation in the middle of that — you called me screaming. You accused me of attempting to write another shitty story about him. Your lies are getting very hard to ignore Amy. Same goes for Ashley (the head of a conservative schools group in the Michiana area).
Drake: “I don’t know if I called you, but I remember texting that. And you were the person who told me Mark got out that morning. That was the first I had confirmation. (Remember, just moments earlier, Drake claimed that she recruited Rutten to run for the seat because Root was leaving.)
Me: “Amy — you’ve been caught in a lie. That is really bad. It seems like you made so much of this stuff up, attempted to cover your tracks and have lost track of the narrative you put out. This is disgusting.”
Drake: “Okay, still not sure what I lied about. But, not concerned.”
Me: “I wouldn’t expect anything but more lies at this point. Very disappointing.”
Four hours later I let Amy know that I would be working on a story that may or may not be published.
Me: “I am obligated to report the truth. It breaks my heart. I can’t in good faith ignore blatant lies put out by an elected official. Do you have comment.”
Drake: “No have fun”
The following day, Drake sent me another text message full of conspiracy theories, while at the same time making veiled threats if I were to publish a story.
Drake: “If you publish my texts, I hope you publish the parts I mention about you working for team Hizer and being used by the cabal to do their dirty work — and conveniently not writing any stories exposing their issues like Hizer’s Riley endorsement and (redacted) working to elect a dirty judge. Because I can publish as easily as you can.”
Remember, Hizer’s opponent is literally advertising on this website. I am not working for against any candidate in the primary campaigns.
CONSEQUENCES FOR DIRTY CAMPAIGNS
When Drake began her campaign of lies against Hizer, GOP chair Tyler Gillean sent an email to the candidates in an attempt to get the everyone to be civil with each other. He warned there would be consequences for dirty campaigns against fellow conservatives. Gillean has upheld his end of that deal, taking away Drake’s access to certain GOP data and systems.
This morning, Drake sent out another email to her followers attacking Gillean for following through with the promised consequences. She also wrote an INSANE story that appears to claim conservatives have put out a fake letter saying she was cheating on her husband and has AIDS. If that letter exists, I guarantee it didn’t come from any member of the GOP.
DESTROYING THE COUNTY TO DESTROY REPUBLICANS
Drake’s attacks against the GOP go well beyond the current primary campaign and are now beginning to impact the economic future and quality of life of people she was elected to serve.
Sources have confirmed Drake has done the following in her efforts to destroy the GOP with no regard for the residents of St. Joseph County. She hopes to pin the following on other county council members and county commissioners.
- She took efforts to stop the nearly $4-billion dollar investment by GM to build a battery plant that would bring 1,700 jobs to the county. She wanted to pin GM’s pullout on Republican Commissioners.
- She has taken steps in an attempt prevent another multibillion dollar project, expected to dwarf the GM plant in monetary investment. That project cannot be announced yet, however, it would also bring approximately 1,000 jobs to the county.
- Drake violated the separation of powers in the county by secretly re-writing the county’s tax abatement ordinance, without consulting the Commissioners or their legal and financial teams, all in an effort to give herself a seat at the negotiating table. State law gives the Commissioners the authority to negotiate those deals, not the Council.
- Drake is currently planning to kill the plans for a new park in Granger — the park was estimated to cost nearly $4-million. However, our other elected officials have found a creative way to share costs and cut that price tag down to $400,000. Drake still wants to prevent it from being built in order to punish fellow Republicans in the hopes that they will lose their reelection bids in the future.
SUPPORT FOR DRAKE
Let’s make things very clear: I have been one of Drake’s biggest supporters and cheerleaders for years at this point. I personally took on a twice arrested child molester/violent felon who was rallying outside of her home at 6:30am as she prepared to get her children to school. I have defended her from nearly every attack by the Democrats time and time again. All I require as a journalist and friend is that she be honest. However, she has shown herself to have a serious problem with the truth. And, if we are to be honest, Drake would not have won her election if it weren’t for the coverage she received on RNM.
UNMASKED
Drake has been a supporter and an occasional contributor to REAL News Michiana for several years. While she will on occasion use her real name, she more frequently writes under the pseudonym Frieda M. Rings. Because of her confirmed dishonesty, I am not only ethically bound to put her pseudonym out to the public, I have been directed by legal counsel to do so as well. She has not been honest about much in the past several months and it’s frankly unclear if she ever has been. Any story written by her should be viewed with extreme skepticism and RNM sincerely regrets allowing her to publish anything on this platform.
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Maybe it should be burnt down. The local GOP is almost worthless when it comes to actual votes that matter. *cough*cough*Schaetzle. I was so livid with Carl Baxmeyer, my commissioner, who couldn’t be bothered to vote against reinstating a library board member who voted to keep porn in the kids’ section. Why do I even bother turning out to vote for Republicans? I think this fall I might just forgo voting for local races and just vote for the state and national offices.
I am just getting caught up to speed on this story. I would be interested in hearing Drake’s side of things.
This comment from Dieter regarding the pornographic filth in our libraries would make me want to burn the party down as well. “It’s an overreach what council members are trying to do,” Dieter said. “If you don’t want to read it, don’t look at it. This is America. You should be able to read what you want.”