(Source: MIRS.news, Published 12/7/2023) The Lansing Police Department (LPD) called owners of the former Michigan Republican Party (MRP) headquarters building on Seymour Street earlier this year when they discovered the building had had its power cut off from non-payment, which turned off the electric locks and security system.
As part of a regular check that law enforcement does for vacant buildings, the LPD notified the headquarters’ owners that the power had been shut off to Secchia-Weiser Republican Center, disabling the automatic locks and allowing anyone to walk inside, said Bobby Schostak, chair of the Michigan Republican Party Trust, the owner of the building.
It’s not known if anyone strolled through the building, but Schostak didn’t say that any of the laptops, printers and other materials inside were taken if someone did access it.
The MRP headquarters sat vacant in February after new MRP Chair Kristina Karamo declined to take up office space in the building as former chairs had done.
Traditionally, new leadership teams take possession of the building after the chair election and begin taking responsibility for the payments to keep up the property – utilities, insurance, etc. -- which equates to around $100,000 to $120,000 a year.
This wasn’t done with Karamo, who allegedly didn’t respond for months to questions about her interest in the building and the equipment inside. However, Karamo did tell party faithful in March that the party would not be using the building because “It does not represent the best use of fundraising dollars.”
Once the LPD called, Schostak said he and the other 13 trustees “sprang into action” and began passing the hat among the group for money to pay the bills and the insurance before it expired.
An October 2023 spreadsheet obtained by MIRS shows the MRP holding onto a $509,000 line of credit with Comerica Bank and a $110,000 loan to pay for a speaker at the MRP Mackinac Policy Conference.
Comerica Bank is asking for a plan from the MRP on how it plans to pay off $509,000 on its line of credit. Karamo recently called an emergency meeting of the MRP Budget Commission to ask whether the Secchia Weiser Building should be used to pay off the debt, according to an internal memo being circulated among party activists.
Schostak said neither Karamo nor the MRP can use the building to cover debt.
“The trust owns the building,” he said. “There isn’t any question. If they think they have any rights to it, they are dead-ass wrong. It’s black and white.”
The internal memo reads that assuming there is no security, no mortgage, and the line of credit came with a guarantee that the money is paid back, the MRP is “likely facing a lawsuit” from Comerica to collect the debt.
“This lawsuit will likely include a judgment for the Sheriff to seize all the Party’s assets for sale at auction and also a garnishment of the Party’s bank accounts and amounts that third parties owe the group,” the memo reads. “Under this scenario, the Party will have little choice but to declare bankruptcy.”
Karamo Pre-Emptively Brings In Legal Support
Presuming a future legal fight about her position as chair of the Michigan Republican Party (MRP), Kristina Karamo announced that she has brought in the Washington D.C.-based American Center for Law and Justice to make sure she's in charge of the presidential delegate selection convention in March.
The politically conservative, Christian-based legal organization is joining what the MRP is calling a coalition of Republican leaders to “protect the rights of voters to select candidates for president.”
In a press release Thursday, Karamo equated the move to remove her from office as an attempt to interfere with the candidate selection process, as she said Democrats did in 2022 when five gubernatorial candidates were removed from the ballot for turning in too many forged signatures.
“The uni-party has consistently messaged for five months that they are trying to remove Chair Karamo and her general counsel publicly, even though that mantra started in February 2023, when Karamo began rebuilding the party from the ground up,” reads Thursday’s release.
