RIGHTING THE SHIP

As for White Lake-based state Senator and Michigan GOP chairperson James Runestad, it sounds like things are in pretty rough shape at state headquarters, according to an interview by J.P. Isabell, a writer with the Michigan News Source, an online (michigannewssource.com) news outfit first launched in 2015. In the interview, the state party chief said he took the position thinking that the GOP was $330,000 in the red but quickly discovered the number was more $770,000. Some in the party say there have been no emails sent out by the state office and no Facebook postings and it takes too long to update the GOP website. Further, some complain that phone calls are slow to be returned, if at all. Runestad is quoted as saying: “So I’m spending most of my time trying to have an operation, and right now I feel like the CEO who unlocks the door in the morning and takes the trash cans out, and then starts typing his letters and answering the phone and meeting with people coming through the door and running like crazy everyday all day long .with nobody there other than a couple of volunteers.” The party boss says he is on the party treadmill seven days a week, raising the question many had when he was selected at the state convention – how can you do justice to the elected position as a state Senator and run the Republican party at the same time?

James Runestad