Michigan Republicans call for meeting to consider removing chairperson Karamo amid fundraising woes https://t.co/qr4Jvu2BHH
— The Associated Press (@AP) January 3, 2024
A little schadenfreude, to set us up for the weekend. When the Spousal Unit & I fled Michigan thirty years ago, we thought the GOP was going to turn our beleaguered home into a Rust Belt Mississippi. Fortunately, we underestimated the strength and smarts of Michigander Democrats!
Per the Associated Press, “Michigan Republicans call for meeting to consider removing chairperson Karamo amid fundraising woes”:
A group of Michigan Republicans plan to meet Saturday and discuss whether to remove Michigan GOP Chairperson Kristina Karamo following months of infighting among party members ahead of key Senate and presidential contests in the swing state.
It’s unclear whether enough party members will attend for the gathering to be official, and Karamo has made clear that she won’t recognize the vote either way, but the call for the meeting signals a remarkable decline in support for the chairperson among her grassroots supporters.
An election conspiracist who unsuccessfully ran for secretary of state in 2022, Karamo had been overwhelmingly elected in February to lead the state party through the next presidential election.
A lack of fundraising and transparency during Karamo’s tenure has pushed many of her former supporters to seek to oust her. Karamo revealed during an Oct. 19 meeting that the party had nearly $500,000 in debt and opponents have argued that the chairperson has done little to improve the financial situation in recent months.
Eight of the state party’s 13 congressional district chairs called on Karamo to resign last week and her own co-chair, Malinda Pego, signed onto a petition seeking a removal vote…
Elect a clown, expect a circus.
Michigan GOP Chair Kristina Karamo told me this morning the critics working to remove her are members of “the uniparty”and likened them to some of history’s most famous traitors. https://t.co/pOoV2N5TYa
— Simon D. Schuster (@Simon_Schuster) January 5, 2024
… The party activists moving against her, Karamo told MLive on Friday, are part of an elitist cabal working to undermine the work of patriots like herself.
“Why are they only taking these dishonest, aggressive tactics towards other Republicans?” Karamo said. “Their job as the uniparty, in my opinion, is to prevent the Republican Party from being successful by sowing chaos and dissent and inefficiency … I refuse to believe these are just some good-hearted, confused people because they resort to lying and deception.”…
Oakland County Republican Warren Carpenter, an organizer of the effort to remove Karamo, told MLive this week he is “as confident if not more confident” after news emerged the party’s state committee itself had been fined after Karamo waded into a local party dispute in Hillsdale County and ignored a judge’s order. Karamo’s critics in the state committee said the body hasn’t been consulted on any of the lawsuits the state party has engaged in.
Karamo has also claimed only the chair of the party can set meeting agendas and refused to hold a vote on whether she should remain chair, calling it “unlawful.” That meeting is “illegal” and the committee members that show won’t be conducting the business of the party, she has claimed…
Asked to explain why Carpenter, a major Karamo donor in 2022, became her loudest critic, Karamo called him a “conniver” and a “habitual liar” seeking to sabotage the party.
“Benedict Arnold, Brutus, Judas. The story is a long story throughout history of these individuals who get close, so they can plot and scheme on a person, and when you won’t give in to what they want, they attack, and that’s what we’re witnessing,” she said.
Carpenter said he lost faith in Karamo due to alleged “financial malfeasance” by Karamo and her close circle of allies…
Something tells me that ousting Karamo, even should they manage to do that, will hardly be the end of the Party’s problems. Per the NYTimes (this is an unpaywalled Yahoo link), “Mutiny Erupts in a Michigan GOP Overtaken by Chaos”:
The mutiny took hold on Mackinac Island.
The Michigan Republican Party’s revered two-day policy and politics gathering, the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, was an utter mess.
Attendance had plummeted. Top-tier presidential candidates skipped the September event, and some speakers didn’t show. Guests were baffled by a scoring system that rated their ideology on a scale, from a true conservative to a so-called RINO, or Republican in name only.
And the state party, already deeply in debt, had taken out a $110,000 loan to pay the keynote speaker, Jim Caviezel, an actor who has built an ardent following among the far right after starring in a hit movie this summer about child sex trafficking. The loan came from a trust tied to the wife of the party’s executive director, according to party records.
For some Michigan Republicans, it was the final straw for a chaotic state party leadership that has been plagued by mounting financial problems, lackluster fundraising, secretive meetings and persistent infighting. Blame has centered on the fiery chair, Kristina Karamo, who skyrocketed to the top of the state party through a combative brand of election denialism but has failed to make good on her promises for new fundraising sources and armies of activists…
The pitched battle for control of the state party in a preeminent presidential battleground is the most extreme example of conflicts brewing in state Republican parties across the country. Once dominated largely by moneyed establishment donors and their allies, many state parties have been taken over by grassroots Republican activists energized by former President Donald Trump and his broadsides against the legitimacy of elections.
These activists, now holding positions of state and local power, have elevated others who share their views, prioritizing election denialism over experience and credentials.
The result has been fundraising problems and division.
The Republican Party of Arizona spent much of this year in debt. The Republican Party of Georgia has had similar difficulties, mostly caused by legal fees related to efforts to subvert the 2020 election. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a rare GOP leader to buck Trump, had been forced to form his own political apparatus outside the state party for his reelection campaign in 2022. The leaders of the party in both states have aligned themselves with the election-denial movement.
Veterans of Republican politics say that state parties play vital roles in winning elections, acting as a clearinghouse for distributing large donations from national groups unfamiliar with local terrain and offering discounts on expensive campaign costs like mail. They help identify potential candidates and winnable races. They are a font of the kinds of activists and volunteers critical to powering statewide campaigns. And they raise money.
All of that is at risk in places like Michigan…
By November, Karamo was trying to sell the party’s former headquarters, a building blocks from the state Capitol in Lansing that had been paid for by two wealthy donors. Karamo and the state party do not own the building; it is owned by a trust controlled by former state party chairs.
Karamo had vacated the headquarters months earlier, arguing that its maintenance fees were an unnecessary cost. When she left, Karamo allowed the electricity to be shut off, which released the building’s electronic locks and left it open to the public, according to the report from Republicans opposed to the party chair.
LET. US. SAVOUR!
Nukular Biskits
Good evenin’, y’all!
Hope everyone is doing well, even Baud!
;>)
Alison Rose
The articles refer to her as “Chair” or “Chairperson” but in her Twitter bio, she is “Chairwoman” because ARGLE BARGLE TWO GENDERS or whatever
Also, her most recent tweet:
First off, LOL forever at the idea that the GOP gives a damn about unhoused people, citizens or otherwise. Also, “as devastating as Covid” — hmmm but ma’am your party mostly thinks Covid is a hoax, don’t they? And unless the new groups of undocumented migrants are the reincarnation of Genghis Khan and his posse, I’m pretty sure they will be just a wee bit less fatal to the nation than a fucking deadly virus.
dmsilev
The Republican Party _has_ been very successful by means of sowing chaos and dissent and inefficiency. Preventing that is definitely a good idea.
Nukular Biskits
Could this be Biden’s Katrina?
dmsilev
Are you going all British English on us?
Anoniminous
“grassroots Republican activists”
aka: People of the Land
bbleh
Your regular reminder that, as the Russians were closing in on Berlin, groups of Nazis were running around rounding up and executing Germans considered insufficiently loyal.
Dorothy A. Winsor
It couldn’t happen to a more deserving party.
Tony Jay
@Alison Rose:
Ah, but when Republicans talk about things being ‘as devastating as Covid’ they don’t mean the hoax virus. They mean the jackbooted tyranny of W.H.O. stormtroopers being encouraged by Liberals to parachute into the middle of Heartland towns and brutally gun down Real Americans for refusing to wear face-muzzles.
You’d remember it better if the evidence hadn’t gone up in flames when Antifa burnt down Portland.
Geminid
By their actions, you’d think that Republicans like Kristina Karamo of Michigan and Kelly Ward of Arizona are moles, bought and paid for by the Democratic Deep State in order to ruin the Republican Party. But it’s even better than that- they’re doing it for free!
teezyskeezy
@Anoniminous: I’ve always liked how Cleavon Little laughs there at the word “morons.” I think he didn’t expect that from Wilder and he was genuinely amused and broke character…but it works as a natural reaction from his character too, so no need to be an outtake.
I’m sure if this is true, there are cast interviews out there saying so if were to google for them, but I’m not going to be the first.
TriassicSands
What’s the problem with Karamo, won’t she get behind White Supremacy?
Oh, those rascally Antifanatics!
If it’s not January 6, it’s Portland. Will they ever stop?
Almost Retired
Michigan Dems (and all they’ve accomplished) are inspiring – running up the score while the Republicans keep kicking own goals at the other end of the field. Now “On (to) Wisconsin” this cycle!
ColoradoGuy
Could the Republicans go the way of the Whigs? Just asking the question,
Baud
@Geminid:
I wouldn’t put it past Dark Brandon.
TriassicSands
Oh, Dorothy, the Republicans prefer to be called a cult or fascist mob. Party sounds too much like “fun.”
TriassicSands
@Geminid:
There is no price that can be put on incompetence.
Jay
Tell me you have never watched Die Hard, with out telling me you have never watched Die Hard.
dmsilev
@Jay: Or Jurassic Park. Although that was active sabotage, not stupidity.
Nukular Biskits
How much would it cost to bring Karamo to MS?
TriassicSands
I wonder if that is a misspelling of “charwoman,” which, as all good Americans know, is the proper role of a woman in American society?
Alison Rose
@teezyskeezy: I don’t know about cast interviews, but what I read is that the “you know, morons” part was in the script, but Brooks hid the line from Little so as to get a natural reaction to it. What I love is that when he cracks up, Wilder gives this quick little glance up to the side, and I like to imagine he was trying to catch the crew’s response, too.
Geminid
@ColoradoGuy: One reason Republicans might not go the way of the Whigs: they should be able to keep a core of 20 states under control. They could end up marginilized at the federal level for a decade, but I think they would survive as a party.
The Whigs broke up over slavery and what Seward called the “irrepressible conflict” over it. Republicans today are not divided over an issue of similar magnitude; it seems more like a populist/establishment power struggle to me.
NotMax
“So how many yard signs do you estimate our budget can handle this year?”
“Wait a minute, I’m still crunching the numbers … the answer is nine.”
“Nine hundred? Nine thousand?”
“No. Nine, period.”
eclare
@dmsilev:
I wonder how AL spells that color that is a blend of black and white?
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
As a born and bread Michigander (Grand Rapids) this situation is indeed schadenfreude-licious. Sounds like the money bags set (The Devoses in this case) have finally at long last decided the rubes who now run the party are too far gone to deserve being showered with the spare change they find in their couch cushions.
eclare
@Tony Jay:
“Face-muzzles,” I am so stealing that.
Kirk
@eclare:
Woke
eta – sorry, even having read the thread I took AL as Alabama. mea culpa.
Splitting Image
@eclare:
Silveur?
Alison Rose
@eclare: græy
TriassicSands
@dmsilev:
We have to be forgiving. As the saying goes, “Yanks and Brits, two peoples divided by a common language.” For my part, I’ve never been able to understand how the people who came up with the language don’t know how to pronounce it. I don’t have a problem with the different spellings, they’re manageable. We’re lucky it isn’t the distant past, when spelling seemed like it was at the discretion of the writer.
What with Trump and the GOP and Brexit and Boris Johnson, et al. we all have our problems and must be supportive.
NobodySpecial
@Alison Rose: Don’t forget the part where Cleavon makes Gene spit up his beer when he says “I must see you in my dwessing woom.” They were doing stuff to break each other up all over that movie.
Ken
“Question 3: Should Hillary Clinton be executed without trial?”
“Er… No?”
“RI-NO! RI-NO! RI-NO!”
m.j.
Isn’t there some way that they could turn this into a mega or maga-church, if you will, so that they could avoid all that nasty taxation and still fleece the rubes and send them to the polls?
I believe that what they believe to believe is belief.
brantl
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Born and “bred”, unless you’re actually yeast
I wish that she could stay head of the Republican party in Michigan, we’d kick their asses for at least 20 years.
brantl
@Alison Rose: how’d you get the a and the e to run together?
Alison Rose
@brantl: I googled “ae symbol” and copied it :P But you can also get it from the special character menu on your comment.
brantl
@Alison Rose: Huh. I’ll have to poke around in that stuff.
wjca
But consider what she could accomplish as head of the RNC.
Nukular Biskits
I missed POTUS’s speech, but I did read the live blog of it.
Powerful. I hope it shakes some of these fence-sitters off their complacent “both-sides” asses.
Alison Rose
@brantl: There’s fun stuff in there:
æ
‰
ϖ
Σ
ℜ
§
lowtechcyclist
@Alison Rose:
Cæn ælso gæt it from Chæræctær Mæp on æny PC. ;-)
bbleh
@Alison Rose: Just be aware that #3 is not allowed on family blogs.
brantl
@Alison Rose: Why is their a Dolly Parton Helicopter View in there?
Alison Rose
@bbleh: @brantl: I’ll have you degenerates know that’s the cursive version of the pi symbol.
wjca
Which is why it’s automatically pie-d here….
(Ducks and runs for cover.)
Alison Rose
@wjca: **throws pie at you**
(why does there have to be text after asterisks for them to not disappear?)
Paul in KY
@Tony Jay: Yup, the Great Fire of Portland…still a blasted desert somewhat akin to the Anfauglith in ancient Beleriand…
CliosFanboy
Keep in mind that the nutjob in Michigan is a community College professor. Man, I bet those classes are interesting.
Another Scott
@Alison Rose: I think FYWP wants to treat some asterisks as being the start of a bulleted list.
At least that’s the way it’s behaved for me at times.
E.g. in the Visual Editor, typing “* ” at the start of a line shows a bulleted line.
*
A space before the asterisk seems to turn off that behavior.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@eclare
Either blite or whack.
:)
Heidi Mom
Last year Meshawn Maddock, then a co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, said of Pete Buttigieg, “We’re so blessed this weak little girl moved to Michigan!” Criticism ensued, of course. Whether Ms. Maddock still plays a role in the party, I don’t know.
eclare
@Alison Rose:
Hahaha…
eclare
@Kirk:
I get it, I used to work in state tax for a huge corporation, and to this day when I see “LA,” my first thought is Louisiana.
eclare
@Paul in KY:
And so many lives were lost, just like the Bowling Green Massacre.
Anoniminous
@teezyskeezy:
The usual explanation for Cleavon Little’s breaking character is Wilder’s line “You know … morons” was an ad lib.
There’s also the “Mel hid it from Cleavon” as Alison has already said.
Which is accurate? Pays yer $$$, takes your chance. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
RaflW
@bbleh: A bit less violent, but Elise Stefanik has ‘withdrawn her endorsement’ of the GOP challenger to Marcy Kaptur because he is insufficiently loyal to Trump.
This is the infighting I hope we see more frequently!
hoosierspud
This American Life recently reported on this story:
https://www.thisamericanlife.org/820/believe-in-me
Mart
“That meeting is “illegal”.” See what happens when you embrace a fascist.
Tim Wayne
@hoosierspud: I came here to post about the This American Life story about this. Worth a listen for sure!
Paul in KY
@eclare: I poured out my drink to the many lives lost that day…