LANSING — During James Craig’s Tuesday “dress rehearsal” speech in Jackson County, MIGOP Chair Ron Weiser reportedly told AP that the thumb-on-the-scale optics of coordinating an “off-Broadway” venue for Craig to test out his stump speech was purely coincidental. As a reminder, none of the six officially declared gubernatorial candidates were invited to speak at this event.
“We’re not trying to coronate anybody,” Weiser argued. “That’s all determined in a primary, where the people vote — not the party.” He then proceeded to once again prop Craig up as a “strong” candidate despite him repeatedly dodging reporters and refusing to go into detail on several issues, most notably where he stands on the Big Lie.
However, thanks to his botched kingmaker attempt in 2018, the MIGOP fully manipulated a primary’s outcome. Weiser ordered the party to pay Steve Grot $230,000 to drop out of the secretary of state primary so his preferred candidate Mary Treder Lang could cruise to the nomination, only to lose in the general election to Jocelyn Benson.
Despite paying an additional $200,000 fine to the secretary of state’s office to settle the matter before it went to court, this latest scandal for the embattled MIGOP co-chair is just getting started. New reporting from The Detroit News detailed that Attorney General Dana Nessel is considering launching an investigation to probe “elements of the incident that fall outside of campaign finance policy.”
“If Tuesday’s speech and the way he has been speaking of James Craig for months now is any indication, Ron Weiser has absolutely no reservations about pulling from the same corrupt playbook in order to coronate Craig,” said Rodericka Applewhaite, MDP spokesperson. “It’s already obvious Weiser is curating every aspect of Craig’s quasi-campaign, down to the party insiders the former police chief is allowed to be seen with, who he hires, and what events he’s allowed to go to. While Craig gets pulled in a million directions by his extensive pack of handlers, Governor Whitmer is showing what real leadership looks like. Just this week, she signed into law major multi-billion dollar investments into our public education system — all without a tax hike.”
