But his family life was difficult. He has been married four times and has been estranged for more than two decades from two grown children and does not know their children, family members said. (He also has two stepchildren.) He often talks about his experience as a police officer and firefighter in Kalamazoo, Mich. But personnel records obtained by the city’s Department of Public Safety, which he left in 1999, include this note in his file: “Retired, bad grades, will not rehire.” A department spokesman declined to comment. Mr. Finchem has raised more than $1.2 million, a significant sum for a campaign for secretary of state. (Mr. Lane has raised about $1.1 million, with the other two candidates trailing well behind.) Much of the money came from abroad — seven of the eight donors reported as giving $5,300 in his last two campaign filings were from elsewhere. Major donors include Brian T. Kennedy, former president of the right-wing Claremont Institute, and Michael Marsicano, former mayor of Hazleton, Pa., who recently lost a Republican congressional primary. Nevertheless, it has little visible sign of a staff or campaign office. About three-quarters of his spending, more than $750,000, has flowed into a Florida political consulting firm run by Spence Rogers, the nephew of Wendy Rogers, an Arizona congresswoman with ties to white nationalists, campaign filings show. Another $53,000, or nearly 5 percent of his total spending, has gone toward payments at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort. (Several other Trump-backed candidates have done the same, including Kari Lake, Mr. Trump’s favored candidate for governor of Arizona, whose campaign has spent more than $100,000 at Mar-a-Lago.)
