‘Tis the season for Peace on Earth, but local Republicans will settle for peace within the ranks of the Macomb County GOP.
The very public feud in the Republican ranks that began about a year ago is now officially over. 10th District Rep. Candice Miller has made peace with her former right-hand man, Stan Grot, who chairs the 10th District Republicans.
A 10th District Christmas Party will be held tonight at Mac Ray’s marina in Harrison Township and Republicans of all stripes – the pro-Miller forces and the Grot loyalists who are associated with the tea party – have all been invited.
In her party invitation, Miller, a Harrison Township Republican, said that it’s “long past time to put minor disputes behind us.” Working together, she said, the party can accomplish much more than when pulling in different directions.
“Internal disputes can happen,” she added, but the 2010-11 fights between old and new Republicans in the 10th District and across Macomb County were “overblown in the media by those who wish to limit our success at the ballot box.”
(I guess that not-so-subtle dig was aimed at me.)
Grot was the power broker who recruited enough tea party-type precinct delegates last year to engineer a takeover of the 10th District and Macomb GOP leadership. When his chosen county chairman, Mike Ennis, failed to live up to the new anti-establishment hierarchy’s expectations he was promptly booted out.
Meanwhile, Miller’s supporters responded to this takeover by reviving a dormant group called the Republican Committee of Northern Macomb County. They demonstrated their heft by holding a Ronald Reagan Dinner in August that attracted 500 people, including Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, Miller, GOP Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra and most of Macomb’s Republican elected officials.
The new 10th Congressional District Republicans, which are supposed to be Miller’s top supporters, boycotted the dinner.
Last month, Miller and Grot apparently sat down for a pow-wow and hashed things out.
But, hey, this is Macomb County. Don’t expect the cease fire to last much beyond Election Day of 2012.
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