Let me commence with one of my world-famous beating-of-the-dead-horse moments of why the Michigan GOP is pretty much dead for the foreseeable future

As some of you might know, I live in the Great Lake State and correctly identify as a Michiganian, not a Michigander. I have watched the Michigan GOP, for decades, slowly lose ground to the point where it seems more like the Michigan Democrat Lite Party than anything else.

I wrote this months ago:

Former Republican Congressman From Michigan Declares 'Michigan GOP Is Dead'

From that article

First off, before I go into my article here I just want to revisit one thing to make sure everyone who reads this is clear on my credentials to say what I’m going to write. My name is Duke and I have lived in Michigan all my life. I was a member of the Michigan Republican Party for about a year and quit when I was told in 1992 that asking why Bush 41 had broken his no new taxes pledge was inappropriate for a Republican in good standing.

I thought that was crazy in as much that asking a policy question was not allowed, and the party has been going downhill ever since. Hence this post and some of the other posts I have written and will link to here.

So while I have not been a member in good standing, I have watched and talked with those who are and it is not gotten better in over 30 years.

Which brings us to today.

The party is damn near dead.

Why did I believe this? 

Well, one of Karamo's first acts was to close the state HQ and move the official address to a P.O. Box on the west side of the state. Lansing is in the MIDDLE OF THE STATE, so that made a lot of sense in no universe ever. 

Her explanation of this was also just.....peachy.

Kristina Karamo, the new chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, announced Monday she doesn’t plan to use the GOP’s longtime headquarters in Lansing, a development that represents a significant shift in the party’s operations.

Karamo, a frequent critic of the so-called Republican “establishment,” contended there were better ways to expend donors’ contributions than paying a trust, run by former party chairs, that controls the property. It would cost about $12,000 a month to keep operating out of the building, wrote Karamo and her co-chair, Malinda Pego, in an “update” email to Republican activists.

“Instead of paying a lease/rent to ‘a trust’ that is claiming we can’t even see the trust documents, and instead of attempting to repair the building that does not belong to MIGOP, we shall not be making use of this building given that, to do so, does not represent best use of fundraising dollars,” Karamo and Pego wrote.

I just don't get the warm fuzzies from this response. In fact, the Democrats fell over laughing, and they had not ever started drinking yet when this excuse was released.

Yet, that was just the beginning of the show. When it got to how much the party had after the ARSE kicking it took in 2022, the hits just kept right on coming.

“The party is in debt. $460,000,” Karamo said during the Muskegon County event.

“So that is something we’re working through,” she added. “But we do have funding to get started and get our initial operations going. Hopefully, the former chair will be gracious enough to pay that off.”

The former chairman, Ron Weiser, a wealthy real estate businessman from Ann Arbor, decided not to seek another term this year.

The party’s overall debt can be hard to nail down because it has multiple accounts, some that have to be reported publicly and others that don’t.

Asked about the $460,000 in alleged debt, Weiser didn’t refute the number in a Friday statement. But he also gave no indication he would step in to resolve it.

Weiser said he had given more than $5 million to help Republicans win elections for the 2022 cycle. Like other party organizations, there was “a relatively small amount of debt left over that represents less than 4% of total revenues,” Weiser said.

It got worse. 

When a secret recording was done of a GOP meeting and the topic of how much money was in the bank, this nugget confirmed what I suspected. 

Michigan GOP Is Functionally Bankrupt, According to Audio Recording of a Closed Meeting

From the above article

The Michigan Republican Party has about $93,000 in its bank accounts 16 months before the November 2024 presidential election, a revelation GOP insiders said paints an alarming financial picture for a political party that had full control of state government five years ago.

The leadership team of Michigan Republican Party Chairwoman Kristina Karamo updated the state GOP committee on the party’s budget during a closed-door meeting at the Doherty Hotel in Clare on July 8. The Detroit News obtained a recording of the gathering that one participant described as a “Festivus-style airing of grievances,” complete with verbal feuding, a physical altercation and questions about how the party would be able to pay off its debts.

There ya have it.

So, a new party chair that closes the HQ and moves it to a P.O. Box, has close to a half million dollar debt, and by mid-summer has just under 100K in the bank, is not succeding?

That sounds like a FUN PARTY to belong to.

If you are a Democrat. 

Well, after that refresher, we now get to last weekend at Mackinac Island where a member of the GOP State committee in the state of Michigan called the conference, that is held every two years by the GOP, a failure -- but with a little more flair.

 Let me freshen up my whip for this, as I beat more dead horses, while I read about this right here

Bree Moeggenberg, a member of the Michigan Republican Party's state committee, carried petitions inside the Grand Hotel, requesting removal of the Michigan Republican Party's general counsel, Dan Hartman.

In an email to other Republicans on Saturday, Moeggenberg described the conference as a "historic flop."

Well, how about that?

Why would a conference that usually attracts Republicans from all over the country be a flop of any kind, let alone "historic?"

Maybe because the chairperson of said party might not be best suited for this job

In fact, when criticized as mentioned in the article right above, she had this to say.

Karamo rose to political prominence by criticizing the 2020 presidential election. In 2022, she ran for secretary of state, losing to Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson by 14 percentage points. But Karamo refused to concede the race.

Michigan Republicans then elected Karamo to be their party's chairwoman in February. So far, her term has been rocked by internal divisions and fundraising struggles that have played out as traditional donors have closed their pocketbooks.

Here is her suggestion to those who oppose her unique style of leadership.

During one of her speeches on Saturday, Karamo said rumors that she was going to resign weren't true. But she acknowledged some people were "angry" that she had become chairwoman.

"Pound sand," Karamo then said. "That's what I have to say about that."

Jeff Fuss, a Republican from Ottawa County, called on Karamo, a former podcast host and educator, to resign. Fuss contended the state party was functionally bankrupt.

I'm not sure that Kristina knows that Michigan has a lot of sandy beaches where that suggestion could actually be taken up literally. I would like to make my own suggestion: that she immediately resign and take up pounding sand as a hobby, which she might be able to do more successfully than running one of the 50-state GOP parties.

However, I also need to acknowledge Jeff for publicly saying what needs to be said. If Karamo is not a Democrat plant and actually cares about the GOP and the ideals they have in moving forward, she would immediately step down. Then, the party could get somebody in there who actually knows how to maneuver through the multi-faceted hurdles you have to do as a party chairperson. 

She has been the chairman since mid-February; this experiment has failed miserably and if something isn't done soon, it will be years before the Michigan GOP is able to function to actually put up a candidate statewide to win.

However, as it stands right now, whoever wins the GOP nomination in 2024 has a better chance of pounding sand and making a castle than of winning this state in the general election in November of that year.

As the old saying goes: play stupid games and win stupid prizes or in this case, play stupid games and not be anywhere near ready for the November 2024 election.

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