Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox secretly appointed Anti-Trump attorney Dennis Flessland to be the lead lawyer for the state party, WMP learned Friday.
Cox appointed Flessland around 3 weeks ago to replace Stu Sandler, who left the role of General Counsel to take a position in Washington DC with Senate Republicans.
Flessland has publicly supported efforts to purge President Trump from the party, as well as starting a new party free of Trump supporters.
Flessland also says that the GOP can't be both the party of Lincoln, and the party of Trump...
Apparently, Laura Cox will run the MIGOP Zoom convention on Saturday instead of handing it off to a separate Convention Chair, despite being a candidate herself!
Normally at state convention, we always elect a Convention Chair, someone who is not a candidate in a race to be decided by the delegates that day...
This practice is common at the District level, and that too should stop in the future...
She will be able to mute anyone she doesn't want to hear from, and she can pretty much stop the vote counting whenever she pleases!
“I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.”
In a bombshell email to Republican activists across the state Thursday morning, Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox re-entered the race for MIGOP Chair just 2 days before the convention, concurrently alleging that former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Ron Weiser paid Stan Grot $200,000 of party money to drop out of the race for Secretary of State in 2018.
Weiser and his Co-Chair, Meshawn Maddock, were expected to take office after this weekend without any opposition before the blockbuster announcement from Cox.
Grot, the Chair of the 10th District, and the elected Shelby Township Clerk, says Cox is desperate, questioning why she named him MIGOP Budget Committee Chairman.
"I am proud of my work turning Macomb County red and making it one of the most Republican areas in the country," Grot said in a statement Thursday. "I find it highly ironic that Laura Cox put me in charge of the party finances and appointed me Chairman of the Republican Party Budget Committee if she truly thought I shouldn't have been hired. Laura Cox is desperate to hold on to her job and full of sour grapes. Shame on her."
The email from Cox ignited a firestorm with precinct delegates and leaders across the Michigan Republican Party, the media, and political observers throughout the state.
Cox claims she will resign as Chair if she wins so that State Committee could choose a replacement in April.
Cox said she has known about the issue with Weiser and Grot for two years, but is only coming forward now, two days before the election.
She says she didn't come forward during the last two years because of Weiser's health problems, and other issues.
Weiser addressed the controversy in a statement defending his actions:
"During my time as party chair, we were successful in turning the Upper Peninsula permanently red and, with Stan Grot’s help, we organized record turnout in Macomb County. As a result, Northern Michigan and Macomb are now the strongest Republican areas in the state. I proudly declined a chairman salary, which allowed the party to hire regional organizers, and we will grow that program to increase our numbers in other regions of the state in 2022.
Laura Cox’s baseless allegations are a desperate attempt to smear my name, based on a longstanding political grudge, and her inability to hold onto the job of party chair that she could not keep on her own merits. The contract in question was drafted by counsel, and I relied on that counsel. What's more, Laura's false allegations have been reviewed by former Chief Justice Robert P. Young Jr. of the Michigan Supreme Court, who has also consulted with other legal experts, and they all agree there have been no violations.
Laura has known about these issues for the past two years and, had there been any violation, which there wasn't, she would have compounded the problem and she would have been liable. Furthermore, Laura appointed Grot as chair of the budget committee, putting him in charge of the party's finances, undermining her entire assertion.
I'm disappointed by Laura's shameful attempt to destroy our party with unfounded and reckless conspiracy theories so that she can get back in the chair's race and save her paycheck. We must focus on our party and our future. As such, I have started putting together a staff and a plan to win in 2022."
Cox now claims to be a self righteous fighter for truth and transparency, yet still refuses to answer why she and Arlan Meekhof helped launder $10 million of taxpayer money to former MIGOP Chair Bobby Schostak when she was the Appropriations Chair in the Michigan House in 2018.
This bizarre stunt Laura Cox cooked up is just like the desperate girlfriend who claims she's pregnant when she's about to be dumped.
Delegates deserve real answers on this issue, not a cynical, 11th hour circus so Laura can save her job.
