(Source: MIRS.news, Published 01/12/2024) Kristina Karamo didn't acknowledge last week's Michigan Republican Party (MRP) State Committee vote that removed her as chair.
She acknowledged Friday’s MRP State Committee meeting -- the validity of which will likely also be questioned. It saw Karamo put her own removal up for a vote. It failed, 59-1.
The meeting held last week to remove her, which State Committee member Braeden Giazobazzi called “the coup in Commerce" saw a 40-5 vote in favor of her ousting.
Both MRP factions argue over whether their opponents followed bylaws in their meetings, thus contesting the validity of any business conducted at the meetings.
At Friday’s meeting – held primarily by video due to the blizzard that blanketed the scheduled Houghton Lake venue with snow -- a voice vote removed the requirement for 54 signatures to be presented to the secretary to allow a removal vote.
It’s possible that a prohibition of using the restroom without turning one’s camera off hasn’t made it into the bylaws either, since an ex-officio member did exactly that Friday.
At the end of the meeting, in a move that Karamo opponents say violates the bylaws for adding items to the agenda of a special meeting, the group voted to bypass a conflict of interest investigation being done by the policy committee into Bree Moeggenberg, Andy Sebolt, Anne Delisle, JD Glaser, Tim Ross and Dan Lawless, state committee members that orchestrated the Jan. 6 meeting to remove Karamo.
The motion passed and the six members were voted out of their posts.
A Karamo critic later said that it takes two-thirds of the entire body to bypass the investigation, not two-thirds of the body that is present.
Newly declared Chair Malinda Pego was also voted for removal with 95.2% of attendees voting for her removal, but Karamo has been saying this week that she’s already accepted Pego’s letter of resignation. Pego said she did not resign and there was no letter of resignation for her to accept.
However, Pego has scheduled a meeting to elect a new party chair for next Saturday, Jan. 20 at 10 a.m. in Lansing. Potential candidates include Lena Epstein, Pete Hoekstra and Vance Patrick.
