A leaked recording of what was supposed to be a closed party meeting painted a pretty dire picture of Michigan's Republican Party and its chaotic leadership. Essentially, with just $93,231.90 in their accounts, they have enough money for a few weeks. They also reported nearly $500,000 in debt in March. So the clownshow experiment with ultra MAGA Party Chairwoman Kristina Karamo had not been a great success. Republican Tom Leonard, a former House Speaker and State Budget Chair said a successful state party in Michigan needs to raise between $30 million and $40 million each election cycle. $93,231.90 seems to be less than that number.
Source: Detroit News
LANSING, Mich. — 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.
The discussion pulled back the curtain on details of the Michigan Republican Party's finances that would normally remain secret and pointed to continued hesitations among longtime funders to open their wallets. While the party has some accounts that must file public reports on their contributors and expenditures, other accounts never have to, making it difficult to determine how much fundraising has occurred.
The meeting descended into chaos, with lots of finger-pointing. A "Festivus-style airing of grievances," according to the recording
At one point, Karamo admonished the amount of time Republicans spend on social media.
"Maybe, if you got off social media, we might really beat Democrats," the chairwoman said.
At various points in the discussion, Republican members accused each other of being out of order and leaking confidential information to reporters.
"Who’s running the meeting?" Macomb County Republican Party Chairman Mark Forton yelled at one point, according to the audio recording.
“It’s not you, Forton. Sit down," responded another person who wasn't identified.
'Somebody was just assaulted!'
And so on.
Maybe putting MAGA zealots in charge of running the show wasn't such a great idea after all, in Michigan or anywhere else.
