WHO’S IN CHARGE?
There is a split court of opinion as to who is really running the Michigan Republican party when it comes to anointing candidates for state office. One school of thought is that the Maddock couple – state party chair Meshawn and husband Matt ‘Mad Dog’, a state Representative – are having heavy sway with former President Donald Trump. One Republican said that the former prez “listens to them.” But then we hear that they, like others, are taking their marching orders from Mar-A-Lago resort, including when it came to the highly unusual endorsement by Meshawn of Matt DePerno for Michigan Attorney General in advance of the pre-nomination gathering this spring. Word has it that Meshawn really wanted to throw her support for attorney general to former Speaker of the House Tom Leonard, who had run for the post in 2018 and was considered by many to be the best hope in this year’s general election. But we are told Trump insisted she go with DePerno. Trump supposedly also told Macomb Congresswoman Lisa McLain, who had the prez’s endorsement when she ran to assume office in 2020, that she had to back DePerno or she could forget any further backing by Trump.