Articles

 

Saturday February 6, Michigan Republicans will have their convention to elect new party leadership. If you are a state delegate like me, this is your opportunity to vote and choose who we want to be our leaders.

Here are my recommendations:

State Chairman and Co-Chair: Ron Weiser and Meshawn Maddock.

Before even addressing the disaster that occurred today, let's just compare results.

Ron Weiser has donated millions of dollars to Republicans over the years and raised many millions more. He was once Finance Chair of the national committee.

Meshawn Maddock ran Michigan Trump Republicans and Women For Trump, bringing thousands of new supporters into the campaign. This was after building (along with Marian Sheridan and others) some of the largest conservative grassroots organizations in Michigan.

Weiser's opponent, incumbent Chairwoman Laura Cox, lost her race for State Senate in 2018. That same year, the candidate to replace her in the State House lost the race, and the Democrats took over the congressional seat of her district with a complete lunatic, Haley Stevens.

This somehow qualified her to run the state party, which went on to fail to reclaim the two lost congressional seats and, of course, lose the White House.

It was no surprise when Laura Cox dropped out of the race a few weeks ago, but a complete stunner when this morning Cox kicked out an email blast to state delegates, accusing Ron Weiser of misconduct and potential crimes.

The 2,000-word accusation was full of inside baseball and carefully-worded insinuations relating to Weiser allegedly using party money to pay a candidate to drop out of the race for Secretary of State in 2018.

"Wherever the money came from does not solve or negate the potentially serious violations of the Michigan Campaign Finance Act (“MCFA”), i.e., for the use of undisclosed corporate funds to influence a state race," Cox wrote.

Weiser's reply was brutal:

Laura Cox's baseless allegations are a desperate attempt to smear my name, based on a longstanding political grudge, and her inability to hold onto the job of party chair that she could not keep on her own merits. The contract in question was drafted by counsel, and I relied on that counsel. What's more, Laura's false allegations have been reviewed by former Chief Justice Robert P. Young Jr. of the Michigan Supreme Court, who has also consulted with other legal experts, and they all agree there have been no violations. Laura has known about these issues for the past two years and, had there been any violation, which there wasn't, she would have compounded the problem and she would have been liable. Furthermore, Laura appointed Grot as chair of the budget committee, putting him in charge of the party's finances, undermining her entire assertion.

I'm disappointed by Laura's shameful attempt to destroy our party with unfounded and reckless conspiracy theories so that she can get back in the chair's race and save her paycheck. We must focus on our party and our future. As such, I have started putting together a staff and a plan to win in 2022.

Ouch.

I've been involved in GOP politics long enough to know that dirty tricks are the norm in state convention races. But what Laura Cox did today was appalling.

I have no doubt that Weiser's legal team ensured that everything he did was by the book, but having made this public accusation, Laura Cox just invited the Attorney General and Secretary of State to harass the party over this matter for the next two years.

And this comes just a day after the Governor, AG, and SOS publicly filed complaints against members of Trump's legal team in an open effort to have them disbarred, demonstrating they are perfectly willing to abuse their offices and taxpayer money to weaponize their agencies for political purposes.

It was an extraordinary lack of judgment on Cox's part to hurl these accusations publicly, and will very likely damage the party for the next year or more. She is totally unfit to remain in office.

Administrative Vice Chair: Diane Schindlbeck.

This one's another no-brainer. Schindlbeck is a major grassroots leader and Trump supporter; she founded West Michigan Republicans, co-founded Michigan Trump Republicans, and serves on the board of Michigan Conservative Coalition. She was also a national delegate for Donald Trump in 2016, and helped defeat the effort to defeat Trump from getting the nomination at that convention.

Her opponent, Gerry Hildenbrand, is establishment all the way, even having recruited and funded a primary challenger to one of the most conservative and liberty-oriented members of the State House, Steve Johnson, in 2018.

It's also worth pointing out that the Administrative Vice Chair's main job is organizing conventions, and the party has basically allowed Gretchen Whitmer to control our conventions through unconstitutional lockdown orders. These "online" conventions are a parliamentary disaster, and totally fail to be the grassroots pep rallies they are supposed to be.

Outreach Vice Chair: Ty Bundy.

I don't have strong feelings about this race, but Bundy is the incumbent Outreach Vice Chair, and has done yeoman's work in the Detroit area to spread the Republican message. He ran four Detroit offices in the 2020 campaign and then went down to Georgia to help out with the runoff effort. I might pass him over for a superstar candidate, if we had one. But the other candidates are not impressive.

Brandon Brice is a Never-Trumper. Here's a video where he endorses the President's impeachment (the first one) and essentially calls Donald Trump supporters cultists.

I reviewed Benjamin Soltis' website. I still can't figure out what he stands for or what his strategy would be.

Dana Whitehead seems to mean well, but her short campaign letter offers little in the way of new ideas for outreach. She says "As your Outreach Vice Chair, my priority will be reaching out to Christians. 70% of the population of Michigan, identify themselves as Christians. It's time we reach out and rally the Christians, and educate them about the anti-Christian policies that the Democrat party support."

This is not a winning strategy. Christians are the core constituency of the Republican Party already. The job of the Outreach Vice Chair is to bring in new constituencies where there are big opportunities to turn Democrat voters into Republicans. Donald Trump did an incredible job bringing the blue-collar vote over, for example.

Bundy's probably the best we've got.

Grassroots Vice Chair: Marian Sheridan.

This one's another no-brainer. Nobody has worked as hard for Donald Trump as Marian, and Marian was one of the only people working like crazy to help stop the criminal impeding of poll workers and poll challengers.

Marian knew what would happen, and she personally organized hundreds of people to guard the vote. If she hadn't been alone in this effort, we might have had a very different outcome in Detroit.

She's also a top leader at Michigan Trump Republicans, Women For Trump, and Michigan Conservative Coalition.

Her opponent, Cindi Holland, is endorsing Laura Cox after Cox's disgraceful conduct today. How embarrassing for her.

Youth Vice Chair: Paul Stephens is running unopposed.

Ethnic Vice Chair: All three candidates are great.

I have no strong feelings on this one. I like all three candidates.

Coalitions Vice Chair: Anyone but Gabi Grossbard.

Gabi Grossbard told the Jewish News last year: "I'm not a radical right-wing lunatic nut... I really think that I'm in the middle."

Translation: RINO. Vote no on him.

(There may be a runoff, so be sure to stick around if he survives the first ballot.)

David Yardley has been a conservative activist forever, Tami Carlone was a great candidate for Michigan Board of Education and is a tireless advocate for freedom and choice in education, and Heather Cerone is a grassroots leader in Traverse. Any of them would be good.

Conclusion

I hope this was informative to you. Be sure to tune in to the convention; maybe some of the candidates' speeches will decide your preference.

May we have a better GOP in 2021-2022 than we had this past cycle.