LANSING — Michigan Republicans chose House Speaker Tom Leonard as their nominee for attorney general and Mary Treder Lang as their nominee for secretary of state at a Saturday convention.
Leonard will face Democrat Dana Nessel in the Nov. 6 general election. Lang will face Democrat Jocelyn Benson.
"We have a big 10 weeks ahead of us," Leonard told the convention at the Lansing Center after his opponent, Sen. Tonya Schuitmaker, asked the convention to make his nomination unanimous. "We need every one of you in November."
Leonard, R-DeWitt, and Schuitmaker, R-Lawton, were locked in a tough race for the AG nomination. Leonard was an assistant prosecutor in Genesee County and an assistant attorney general in Lansing before running for the state House of Representatives in 2012. Schuitmaker was a private practice attorney for 24 years before she won three terms in the state House of Representatives and two in the state Senate.
Lang, a Grosse Pointe Farms certified public accountant, defeated Michigan State University professor Joseph Guzman, an Okemos resident and co-chairman of President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign in Michigan. Lang, by far, had the money and endorsement advantage, but Guzman was endorsed by Michigan Trump Republicans.
Saturday's convention mostly ran according to script, but there were contentious moments.
Loud boos rang out in the convention hall when Cass County Prosecutor Victor Fitz stepped to the lectern to nominate Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Clement.
Clement, who is running for a full term after she was named to the bench by Gov. Rick Snyder in November, has come under fire by Republican activists for her July backing of a 4-3 Michigan Supreme Court decision that allowed a proposed anti-gerrymandering proposal on the November ballot.
As an incumbent, Clement will appear on the nonpartisan ballot with or without a party endorsement. A significant number of the roughly 2,100 delegates were expected to abstain from endorsing Clement on Saturday. But it was not clear the Michigan Republican Party would release those numbers after convention chairman Jase Bolger declared, over loud objections, unanimous endorsement of Clement, along with Justice Kurtis Wilder, as the party's two Supreme Court nominees.
Though billed as non-partisan, the proposal to create a bipartisan commission to draw election district lines now drawn by the Legislature, is widely portrayed by Republican activists as a liberal plan to help Democrats.
But the Michigan Supreme Court wasn't asked to rule on the merits of the proposal -- just whether it met constitutional requirements to appear as a ballot question.
Multiple speakers hammered on a range of points related to a central theme: Michigan has made huge progress under Republican control of state offices since 2011, but "Michigan's future is on the line" in 2018, facing an energized Democratic Party that would reverse those gains.
Targeted the most for specific attacks were Democratic U.S. Senate Debbie Stabenow, who is seeking a fourth term, and former Senate minority leader Gretchen Whitmer, the Democratic nominee for governor, who was frequently likened to former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who held office during the severe recession of the early 2000s.
"It's really a question are we going forward, or going back," said Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette, the Republican nominee for governor.
Democrats argue that it was a nationwide recession that Michigan suffered through during the Granholm years and say that President Barack Obama and his support for the auto industry played a major role in the state's recovery.
Stabenow will face Republican John James, a U.S. Army veteran who served in Iraq and told the convention Saturday that Stabenow "is in for the fight of her political life."
The convention got off to an awkward start when attendees rose to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and discovered there was no U.S. flag on the stage. Officials scrambled to find one and a volunteer soon emerged from stage left and handed it to party secretary Hank Fuhs. He waved it before the crowd, prompting a brief chant of, "USA."
"For a minute, I thought we were at the convention in East Lansing," said state Rep. Tom Barrett, R-Potterville, referring to the Michigan Democratic Party state convention being held on the same day, just a few minutes away.
Not overly prominent at Saturday's convention was the Trump name, at the end of a week in which former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was convicted of bank fraud and other felony charges and former Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to other criminal charges and is reportedly cooperating with an ongoing special counsel investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Many speakers didn't mention Trump by name, or did so only once. A notable exception was Schuette, who constantly touted Trump's endorsement during his primary campaign and mentioned Trump five times during his 15-minute convention speech.
Asked about the recent criminal convictions involving those in Trump's inner circle, Schuette deflected the question, saying he supports Trump's tax cuts and wants to push through more tax cuts for Michigan.
Republican National Committeewoman Ronna McDaniel was scheduled to speak but had to cancel at the last minute after she put her back out, a party official said.
The convention endorsed Schuette's choice as running mate, former state Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons of Alto. Twenty years ago, Lyons addressed the convention to nominate her father, Dick Posthumus, as lieutenant governor. Posthumus, who served with former Gov. John Engler, nominated his daughter for the position on Saturday.
Lyons, whose choice was criticized by some party activists for withdrawing her support for Trump before the 2016 election in response to crass remarks he made about women in an "Access Hollywood" tape, also voiced her support for the president.
"I support President Trump and his policies because he's getting things done," Lyons said.
Schuette defeated Lt. Gov. Brian Calley in what was often a bitter primary fight.
Calley, whose offer to publicly endorse Schuette at a Republican unity rally, the day after the primary, was rejected, urged convention delegates Saturday to support the Republican ticket from top to bottom. But he did not mention Schuette by name in his remarks. Nor did Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who addressed the convention in a recorded video message.
Schuette, who thanked both Snyder and Calley in his convention address, told reporters he wasn't bothered.
"I'm not obsessed by magic words," he told reporters. "We're going to have a united party."
Contact Paul Egan: 517-372-8660 or pegan@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @paulegan4.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.
