Editor’s note: The following was written by our friend in Iosco County, Maureen Rudel. Maureen is a delightful lady with a veritable fountain of knowledge concerning politics in Michigan. The following is a succinct summary of what we are living through here in Michigan Conservative (Republican) Politics.
I have had a number of people asking me what is going on with the state party, MIGOP. I will tell you what I know and understand.
I was elected Treasurer and Membership Chair in the November convention of 1996, replacing Mary P. Smith as Treasurer and Billie Wright as Membership Chair. Because I live in East Tawas, it was more convenient for me to do both jobs. The Chair was Bill Reilly at that time, and if anyone knew the rules, he did. He was raised in the party. His mother was Mrs. Republican of Traverse City. I learned so much from him about the rules for running the party that I became “The Keeper of All Knowledge.”
Ron Weiser was active in the party even at that time, and from time to time thereafter would be chair. One of his goals was to have a permanent building and address so the address didn’t change every time there was a new election of a chair. It seems about 20 years ago Ron announced the purchase of the building on Seymour Street in Lansing. That address was used until Kristina Karamo was elected Chair in 2023 with over 60% of the votes of delegates after 3 rounds of voting. At least 10 people had announced running for Chair.
Before Kristina was elected, Weiser announced the party was broke and we would have to pay $50 to attend the convention. This had never happened before.
Kristina went to work to raise money. One of the things she looked at was the Seymour St. building. First, it needed a lot of work. It was far bigger than necessary. It cost $14,000 a month to rent it because the party did not own it. Kristina was able to find smaller suitable quarters for far less money which satisfied the needs of the party. That was when she learned that the party did NOT own the building. It was owned by a trust that Weiser set up at its purchase. The trustees were all of the former chairs of the state party. However, there was $400,000 lien on the building. They had been using state party money to pay off this lien. It seemed that it was a misuse of party funds to pay a debt on a building the party did not own or have any legal interest in. It made more sense to sell the building and put the proceeds in the state party accounts. This is when the problems occurred.
Now, the old crowd had problems. They had to get rid of Kristina because of the problems she found with the use of party funds.
She found that the old crowd had lots of good uses for party money. One of those uses was a $60,000 Christmas party for politicians, members and friends where the food, booze and hookers were all provided.
This was not the only party. There were parties all over. They normally had parties on Mackinaw Island with all booze, food and entertainment provided for the special people. Kristina would not use party money for that reason, and despite the resistance of the “good old boys” managed to actually make money at the Mackinaw Island event.
You need to remember that Ronna Romney McDaniels was Chair of the MIGOP for several years before she moved to the RNC. Some of the complaints about her at the RNC were about the frivolous spending of money when she was Chair. She undoubted learned those habits here in Michigan.
The DeVos family did nothing to stop the illegal actions taken to remove Kristina. This is not surprising. It seems as though pretty much every other convention was held in Grand Rapids at the DeVos Center and the Amway Grand Hotel (another DeVos property) owned by the DeVos Family.
What we see here is that the “Good Old Boys” did not want to stop using party money for every foible that suited their collective fancies wanted even if it was of dubious legality.
Bring in the hoax chair and sue Kristina in a Kent County (home of Grand Rapids — owned by the DeVos family) Court where the “Judge” ordered Kristina not to talk about dispute, claim she was the Chair or tell the truth about the crooked deal that led to her removal.
And so, for those of you who have asked what is going on with the Michigan Republicans, we are the victims of a bunch of crooks.
This was written by Maureen H. Rudel, JD, without permission from anyone, passing on another piece of knowledge.
Find the original here: What’s wrong with the Republican Party in Michigan, found in the Iosco County Republican’s “Missive”.
