Leach's dismissal also comes as the Holland Sentinel, her home base, is covering what is probably one of the biggest local stories in the newspaper’s 127-year history — the rise of the conservative group Ottawa Impact, borne out of political ire over pandemic restrictions in Michigan’s fastest growing county, population 300,000.

In the 2022 election, members clinched a majority of the 11 seats on the county board of commissioners. Their reign over the last 16 months has left the local government in a state of upheaval and controversy, with the commissioners moving to oust top bureaucrats like the administrator and health officer, axing the DEI department and prompting five lawsuits against the county.

Leach jumped in last January to help cover the crush of Ottawa Impact news when the Sentinel was down to just one full-time reporter. She soon became the face of the paper’s coverage, striving to explain to the community the unprecedented nature of the board’s sweeping new decisions and their potential effects.

A trio of retired journalists in the community elevated Leach’s work for the Pulitzer Prize for local reporting last fall, with the nomination citing the 130-plus stories she’d written. The nomination letter also noted the Sentinel's subscriptions had surged 38% at that point in the year, making it the fastest-growing website in Gannett’s division for small newspapers.

One significant obstacle noted by the nominating committee is that Ottawa Impact commissioners generally refuse to answer questions or be interviewed by mainstream news reporters, though Leach tried to fairly represent their views anyway, according to the committee.

“More than any other journalist she has held our local elected officials accountable. We need her to preserve democracy in this town,” said Milt Nieuwsma, a retired journalist and author who was part of the nominating committee.

“It’s almost like David and Goliath battling it out against the Ottawa Impact people. What’s ironic is we’re starting to see the results of her work now a week after she’d been fired. If she’d won the Pulitzer, it would have even more ironic. ”

Nieuwsma was referring to Tuesday’s recall election, in which Ottawa Commissioner Lucy Ebel, an Ottawa Impact Republican, lost to Democrat Chris Kleinjans by 20 percentage points, according to unofficial results.

Greg DeJong, former chair of the county commission, said the work by Leach and the Sentinel to keep residents informed about Ottawa Impact’s “shenanigans” led to the public outrage that prompted Tuesday’s recall. DeJong, a Republican, lost his seat in Ottawa Impact’s 2022 takeover of the commission.

“She absolutely tried her best to hold this new board accountable and get other people’s opinions and perspectives. Some people say she’s always beating up on Ottawa Impact, but she reached out to them time and time again,” DeJong said of Leach.

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