1st deadline passes to get on convention slate.
(Photo: Rob Widdis, Special to the Free Press)
The race for head of the Michigan Republican Party is becoming more clear as today’s deadline approached.
Political consultant Paul Welday, former chairman of the Oakland County Republican Party, said today he won’t be running for the seat.
Concerns over having to make the quick transition from business person to campaign mode, as well as a wariness over the upcoming road funding proposal, which will ask voters in May to raise the sales tax by 1-cent to pay for road repairs, prompted Welday to get out of the race for GOP chair.
He’ll throw his support to front-runner Ronna Romney McDaniel, a Republican National Committeewoman and the niece of 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, a former Massachuesetts governor and Michigan native.
Also running are party activists Kim Shmina from Fair Haven in St. Clair County and Joel Poynter of Baldwin in Lake County and David Wolkinson, a West Bloomfield resident who worked on the campaigns of former U.S. Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Milford, and Gov. Rick Snyder, during his first run for governor in 2010.
Former state Rep. Pete Lund, R-Shelby Township, said he still hasn’t made up his mind about whether to pursue the job.
I’m still looking at it and talking to people, he said.
To get into the race, candidates need to get signatures from at least three congressional district chairman in order to be considered by delegates to the Michigan GOP’s winter convention on Feb. 20. After 5 p.m. today, signatures of at least seven district chairman are needed by the final filing deadline on Jan. 22.
Contact Kathleen Gray: 517-372-8661, kgray99@freepress.com or on Twitter @michpoligal.