Morry Taylor's Skeleton Closet
"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.
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.
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.
"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.
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.
"Almost everyone thought he was very disrespectful and inappropriate", two seventh graders wrote in the school newspaper. Back to the top.
"Morry Taylor", Ann Scott Tyson, The Christian Science Monitor, January 23 1996 p10
"Millionaire Taylor Casts Himself As Working Man's Candidate", Nancy Hill-Holtzman, 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
BACK TO SKELETON CLOSET (scandals of other candidates)
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