RNC Finally Makes a Decision on Michigan GOP Chair Karamo, Yet Still Leaves Us Hanging

Is there anything more beautiful in the world than Michigan in the middle of winter, dragging the days out through January and February? Well, yes, there is, and I can name about a hundred things off the top of my head.

However, one of the more amusing things in this state around this time of year is the political Stratego that goes on from people whose backgrounds include all walks of life. The election of Kristina Karamo back in February of 2023 and the recent debacle of whether or not she is still the head of the Michigan GOP can only be explained straightforwardly.

People's common sense gets frozen due to the lack of warm air.

If you haven't been tracking what is happening to the Republican Party in Michigan, here is a brief breakdown.

On January 6th, part of the state committee meets to vote and remove the state chairperson, Kristina Karamo.

Then, on January 13th, a different group of committee members met and said Karamo was staying. On January 20th, the group that kicked out Karamo on the 6th, along with some other committee members, picked former Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, who served under Donald Trump, to lead the Michigan GOP.

Some people might say that Michigan is a boring place in the winter, but as you can see from the above list of events that have happened just this month, it is a fun place if you love booze and hangovers.

Finally, the Republican National Committee has checked how they see the mess in Michigan. They say that, in their opinion, Karamo was appropriately removed and that Hoekstra was voted on to replace her according to the by-laws. Yet they will wait until after the RNC winter meeting in Vegas at the end of next week to make a final decision.

So, for the moment, they are punting. More on it here:

Lawyers for the Republican National Committee wrote in a letter Wednesday that it appeared Michigan GOP Chairwoman Kristina Karamo had been "properly removed" from her post in accordance with party bylaws.
However, the RNC's counsel's office said in the same message that it was unable to conclusively rule on whether Karamo or former U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, whom Karamo's opponents chose to replace her, was officially the state party's leader.
"Following the RNC Winter Meeting, a body of RNC members will move quickly to review this dispute and make such recommendation as they believe appropriate," wrote Michael Whatley, the RNC's general counsel, and Matthew Raymer, the RNC's chief counsel.

I think Dean Martin said it best: Ain't That a Kick In The Head?

The story continues:

"The RNC counsel's office has reviewed the MIGOP bylaws, meeting minutes and other materials provided by both sides in this dispute," Whatley and Raymer wrote. "Based upon initial review, it appears to the counsel's office that Ms. Karamo was properly removed in accordance with the MIGOP bylaws on Jan. 6."

The by-laws are the blueprint for how the party shall conduct its own affairs, and the Karamo people seem to think it is something that the GOP chair can disregard when convenient.

Looks like the Republican National Committee does not share that loose opinion.

Now, I don't want to brag, but I'm going to brag.

I might have been the only person last February or March in the state of Michigan that thought it was damn odd that Karamo decided to abandon the Michigan GOP headquarters claiming paying the $12 or $13,000 a month to operate the building was fiscally irresponsible. She had yet to find out where all the light switches were.

However, when lawsuits started to be filed, it was brought to my attention that the rent on the building set up by the trust that owns it and the lease agreement that the GOP had signed back in 2014 was for a dollar a year, that didn't seem to be that unreasonable. When I wrote this article a couple of weeks ago, boy, did it ruffle some feathers about that situation.

Karamo, in her position as GOP chair, has sued the trust that owns the building, where the GOP has held operations for over a decade, to "find out" who owns the building. She claims this is just to clear up any ambiguity about the issue, although there was none--before she became chair and just flat-out abandoned the headquarters before she had even found out where the bathrooms were. Rumors of her wanting to sell the building, in the unlikely eventuality the Michigan GOP owns it, to retire the debt she has not been able to pay off is just a rumor.
Yet, documents that I have received and first heard about at Rescue Michigan show that one of the first acts Karamo made was based on a misunderstanding.

Karamo should have been removed for this action alone.

The longer the RNC waits to settle this issue, the longer the people who are Democrats lite will still have control of the MI-GOP, and the longer it will take to rebuild for the 2026 Governors race.

Because of this mess, 2024 is gone.