M.L. Nestel joined Raw Story in 2023. An award-winning writer and editor, his work has been published in New York Magazine, Los Angeles Magazine and The Guardian, among other titles. He also produces and writes for true-crime genre TV shows. Prior to that, he served on the Newsweek masthead as a senior writer, wrote as a correspondent at ABC News and held the titles of West Coast bureau chief and senior writer at The Daily Beast. Priors also include working as senior national correspondent at The Daily Mail and investigative reporter at all three NYC tabloids: The New York Post,The New York Daily News and Newsday. He traveled around the country as a national correspondent at The Daily. M.L. published hundreds of stories about underground music and cinema — most notably as a critic for Box Office Magazine and the New York editor at Soma Magazine. He also headed development at Fountainhead Films. M.L. splits his time between Los Angeles and New York.
Will the real Republican Party in Michigan please stand up!
"You tell me," MSNBC's Rachel Maddow teased on Monday night. "Is there a Republican Party in swing state Michigan? Is there one? Are there two? How do you tell the difference?"
The query echoed Bridge Michigan reporter Jonathan Oosting' Twitter/X post: "It's the tale of two Michigan Republican Parties.... MIGOP.org faction: [Kristina] Karamo still chair despite 'illegitimate meeting.' Real state committee meeting Jan. 13. MI-GOP.org action: Malinda Pego now chair. Karamo ousted. Jan. 13 meeting cancelled."
"If you put a dash between the 'MI' and the 'GOP' at mi-gop.org — you find yourself at a totally different Michigan Republican party website; one where the chair is not Kristina Karamo, but rather this other person, a totally different person.
Enter Maddow, who, like Oosting, was puzzled by the dueling GOPs.
"Each of these totally different websites with totally different chairs says literally, 'Paid for by the Michigan Republican party, but they appear to be two different unrelated things with two different people in charge."
The "MIGOP.org" features a ticker on top that reads: "A small fringe faction of State Committee members staged an illegitimate gathering to claim removal of Chairwoman Kristina Karamo."
It then jumps to a press release called the meeting a "rogue cabal" that "called today's bogus gathering a preemptive ploy to illegally remove the chair, and many other State Committee members."
It added: "This entire process is illegitimate according to the rules of the Michigan Republican Party bylaws and is illegal based on Michigan election laws."
It also included a video of the general counsel, facing the camera saying, "Hi, my name is Dan Hartman. I am still the general counsel for the Michigan Republican Party."
The rival site, MI-GOP.org" features a static page with a picture of Interim Chair Malinda Lego with Stars and Stripes in the background.
It discussed the process to "remove former Chairwoman Kristina Karamo and former General Counsel [Hartman]."
It ended with a turn to the future: "Now is the time to unify Republicans and grow our voter base to win elections throughout our state in 2024 and beyond."
