Macomb County has definitely supplanted Detroit and Wayne County to become the Metro's leading political circus. There have been so many scandals, from both parties, it has become difficult to keep up with them.

The latest comedy was yesterday's ouster of Karen Spranger, a TEA Party no name who rode the Trump wave in Macomb to become elected Macomb County clerk/register of deeds. It is alleged that she lied about her residency in her election filings, listing a Hazel Park house that the county contends had no utilities and was uninhabitable, filled with "wall-to-wall garbage, feces and animals," court records show. She is also alleged to taking her child on the county dime to a convention.

But don't say she isn't colorful, so set your cuckoo clocks, make some popcorn and get ready to watch this saga.
Spranger was unemployed and had no prior political experience when she was elected in November 2016. She was known as a political gadfly in Warren, where she sometimes showed up at government meetings in tinfoil accessories and dark glasses to protest smart utility meters and had been behind repeated attempts to recall at least one local official.

In the years prior to taking over the $108,800-per-year county job, Spranger received public assistance, including a state-issued Bridge card.

She has been a lightning rod for controversy since she took office on Jan. 1, 2017. In her first half year on the job, she got kicked off her county computer for allowing non-county workers on it; fired her two top appointed deputies; sued the county over a litany of issues, and was named as a defendant in three other lawsuits, including a whistle-blower complaint in federal court filed by her former top aides.

She was fined $100 for a county ethics violation; totaled her county car in a crash; filed a criminal complaint about the news media harassing her; and was caught on video pushing storage bins to a construction area before an office move she opposed.

She has also claimed she has been reincarnated and was an aide to Egyptian royalty in a previous life. On Monday, her appointed chief deputy clerk, Jacqueline Ryan [who was kicked out today], told a Free Press reporter that Spranger had written a letter to President Donald Trump and U.S. marshals may be on their way to help.