Presidential Candidate Morry Taylor

Morry Taylor's Skeleton Closet

Click on the allegation of your choice:

Left a Toxic Waste Superfund Site for Taxpayers to Clean Up -- A lifetime of failure -- and blaming others -- Ridiculed a Little Girl Who Stuttered (in front of the national press) -- Hated and Humiliated by His Own Workers -- His Lack of Character -- Quotes -- Sources

Quotes

"All they [other candidates] give you is vision. There was a TV show a few years back where they gave you a vision, the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker program. That's all politics is, smoke and mirrors." -- Morry

"I've never, ever wanted to be president. It would be hell." -- Morry

"The Griz is a teddy bear at home." -- Morry's wife, Michelle

"It was an accounting mistake. That was all it was, period. Those things happen every day. The fraud conviction was wrong." - Cheri Taylor Holley, Morry's sister.

"Morry got to a point in his life - he's a very wealthy man - where he wants to give something back in the worst way." -- Hank Washington, Morry's friend and business partner. Back to the top.

Left a Toxic Waste Superfund Site in His Old Home Town -- For Taxpayers to Clean Up

Morry loves to say he'll cut back on government spending. But closer to home, he's happy to leave us taxpayers with his bills. He grew up in Ellsworth, Michigan, where his family had a 24-acre tank ammunition factory. From 1970 to 1972, Morry was his father's "right-hand man" and Vice President in charge of production. During that time, the family business -- Morweld - submitted a series of false invoices to the federal government; Morry's dad was later convicted of fraud in the case.

After Morweld lost its Army contract, the company went bankrupt. By then, Morry had left for Detroit.

Years later, the family started another business on the site, and Morry was a director until it failed in 1984.The Morweld site is now a Superfund hazardous waste site, littered with burnt-out buildings, drums of toxic waste, PCBs, heavy metals including chromium and lead, asbesetos and petrolem products, according to Bob Wagner of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. $3 million in taxpayer money is being spent to clean it up.

Worse yet, the Taylors in general, and Morry in particular, show no sign of acknowledging their role; Morry won't even admit there is pollution there. Environmental agencies sued to get the Taylors to clean up or pay for it. The Taylors not only fought the suits, they blocked access to the property. In 1987, the EPA had to get federal marshalls to protect them so they could begin removing the waste. Morry denies that any contamination exists at the Ellswoth site, and charges that environmental officials fabricated the problem. "They lied and they cheated, and what happened is they have to cover it up. The whole thing is one coverup after another." -- Back to the top.

And another thing...>

Last April, a federal court ruled that Taylor's parents were liable for $900,000 in cleanup costs, but were unable to pay more than a token $1. The judge found Morry lacked sufficient control over the company to be liable. How can a guy leave his parents destitute while spending $15 million on a vanity campaign for president? Back to the top.

Back to the top.

A long record of failure -- always someone else's fault

Everyone's met a loser who always has someone else to blame for everything. Morry Taylor sure looks like one of them. He failed to graduate from Michigan Technological University because a "jerk professor" cut his grade, leaving him barely under the required 2.0 average. He then worked for General Motors as a plant engineer in 1969 but quit after 6 months because he was "bored" and the company "was screwed up." Next came his stretch at the family company, during which time the company sent false invoices to the federal government. (As we saw above, he blames the controversy over toxic waste at that site on government lies.) He left before Morweld went bankrupt and formed a small manufacturing company in Detroit; it failed. The Taylor family started a new business at the old Ellsworth plant, in 1979; Morry served as a director until it shut down in 1984.

The key to his wealth was an argument with Canadian executive Joseph Tannebaum, for whom Morry had been an independent sales rep. After the argument, they became friends. "He became like my second father, I learned so much from that old man. I also learned that he was worth about $500 million," Taylor said.

In 1983, Morry convinced his friend to buy a failing wheel plant in Quincy, and helped turn it around by cutting staff and wages, and getting rid of the union as well as pensions and retirement health benefits. In 1990, Morry engineered a leveraged buyout of the company; 3 years later he took it public, and the stock price has doubled since then. This allowed him to acquire several other failing wheel and rim companies, which form the basis of his fortune -- "somewhere north of $40 million", Morry says.Back to the top.

Hated and Humiliated by His Workers and (Former) Neighbors

Those who know him best don't think much of Morry. When he entered the presidential race in May 1995, he told workers at his Des Moines plant that he would step forward to offer them a choice from the usual politicians. He went to the union hall, hoping workers would form the bulwark of his campaign. They voted unanimously against helping him, and recently cheered as they burned a monogrammed Titan Company shirt after a recent party.

"He ain't no more for the working man than I am for going to the moon," said Dick Larsen. "I wouldn't vote for him for dogcatcher." Morry's response? "It's going to take awhile for them to get used to my style."

His former neighbors in Ellsworth aren't much more positive. They blame his family's ruined factory for depressing property values and preventing investment in Ellsworth, which may soon lose its only bank.

The town's pro tem mayor, Hugh Campbell, says "People here are mad. If Taylor ran against Clinton I don't think he could get 10% of the vote here." Back to the top.

His Lack of Character

Failing to take responsibility is not the only personality flaw that Taylor has. The man who calls himself "The Griz" (for grizzly bear) grew up in a family famous for being ostentatious about money. He was known in high school as a boastful jock who loved to drag Main Street in his souped up 1924 Model-T Ford.

He has been notable on the campaign trail for his arrogance and insults to his audiences. Morry has had to resort to open bars and $25,000 drawings to get people to his campaign events.

One of his most interesting quirks is how much he identifies with "the working man", which you can't miss looking at his web site, or in the audaciousness of his asking workers to campaign for him -- 2 years after he cut their wages and benefits. It's not clear where he gets this self-image from; he worked as a welder for his dad, for a while, but otherwise it seems to be purely a function of his experience *owning* industrial plants, and perhaps his blunt personal style. Back to the top.

Ridiculed a 7th Grade Girl For Stuttering -- in front of the national press

Forget the bad PR value; where was Morry's common decency? In an appearance before a group of 6th and 7th graders, with tons of reporters looking on, a poor girl began stuttering. Morry interrupted: "Sp-sp-spit it out of your mouth, girl!" That's one celebrity visit she'll never forget.

"Almost everyone thought he was very disrespectful and inappropriate", two seventh graders wrote in the school newspaper. Back to the top.

Sources

"Morry Taylor", Ann Scott Tyson, Los Angeles Times, January 23, 1996 pA5

"Morry Taylor Has the Money, the Mouth, the Foot to Put In It", Kenneth Garcia, The San Francisco Chronicle, February 3, 1996 pA5

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