Michigan GOP chair Laura Cox accuses proposed successor of 'secret deal' with party funds
From the Detroit Free Press (2/4/21):
Long-simmering tensions within the Michigan Republican Party exploded into accusations and recriminations Thursday morning, two days before the state party convention.
Michigan Republican Party Chair Laura Cox, who was scheduled to step down at the convention Saturday, is calling on members to instead reelect her on a temporary basis, accusing her proposed successor, Ron Weiser, of making improper payments to keep a candidate out of a party race in 2018, when Weiser earlier served as chairman.
Cox made the accusations against Weiser, who is a U-M regent, in a Thursday morning email, saying she "in good conscience cannot sit quietly" and watch Weiser be elected when "he cannot and should not be the Republican Party chair" because of "a secret deal" she says he orchestrated with party funds.
Weiser hit back Thursday, accusing Cox of making "baseless allegations" in a "desperate attempt to smear my name, based on a long-standing political grudge, and her inability to hold onto the job of party chair that she could not keep on her own merits."
In the email, Cox, who has been party chair for two years, accused Weiser of paying Stanley Grot, the Republican clerk of Shelby Township, $200,000 from a party account over a seven-month period so that he would drop out of the Republican race for secretary of state and allow Mary Treder Lang to be the 2018 nominee.
Lang was defeated in the 2018 election by Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a Democrat.