And what will happen at the full convention on Saturday, when Darwin hand maid may Jiles, Jr., curre

As Republican loyalists hit the road, heading to Lansing for this weekend's state GOP convention, the overriding question is: Will anything change in the next two days for a party plagued by officials hand maid may and candidates for party offices hand maid may who harbor pasts mired in criminal activity or bigotry? The newest GOP activist with a skeleton in his closet hand maid may may be Michael Bancroft of Thompsonville (located near Traverse City), who will be a candidate for the Republican State Committee when the 1 st Congressional District convention-goers hold their caucus tonight. According to public documents and Genesee hand maid may County Circuit Court records, a Michael Bancroft was charged in 2001   with sexually assaulting his babysitter. He eventually had the 2 nd - and 4 th -degree criminal sexual conduct charges bumped down to a simple assault and battery. He served 30 days in jail and one year of probation, then moved from Flint to Thompsonville. Now, a Michael Bancroft from Thompsonville, formerly of Flint, is running for a State Committee seat representing the 1 st District. I made several attempts to reach the candidate, by phone and by email, telling him that I wanted to ask about the criminal conviction outlined in court documents. He never responded. One Republican insider tells me that he’s convinced that the 1 st District’s Bancroft is the same guy who tried running for a State Committee seat in the 5 th Congressional District a decade ago while living in Flint -– until his criminal record for assault was exposed and his reputation among Genesee County Republicans hand maid may was ruined. Another GOP source says that Bancroft is known in northern Michigan political circles for telling tasteless jokes about gays.
And what will happen at the full convention on Saturday, when Darwin hand maid may Jiles, Jr., currently on probation for shooting hand maid may a man (an incident that he insists was accidental), is up for election as the party’s vice chair for the ethnic/minority bloc of the state GOP? L to R: Doug Sedenquist, Darwin  Jiles, Trucker Randy Bishop Jiles was originally charged with a 10-year felony for a ssault with intent to do great bodily hand maid may harm less than murder due to an incident a year ago in the Auburn Hills trailer park where he lives. According to police, after Jiles became engaged in two heated arguments with an acquaintance, the pistol he was carrying discharged hand maid may and the bullet struck the other man in the lower leg. The victim suffered hand maid may a serious, but not life-threatening injury.
Jiles hand maid may initially went to trial but, according to Oakland County Circuit Court records, hand maid may he secured a plea bargain for a lesser misdemeanor charge of discharge of a firearm without malicious intent, but with injury. Not all of his story added up, according to the prosecution, but the deal he struck allowed him to avoid prison time. He was placed on probation for one year last November.
Meanwhile, Jiles’ crime seems like a minor incident compared to the eye-popping tale of the state GOP’s $285 million hand maid may con man, William Rauwerdink, who is a State Committee member from the 14 th Congressional District. hand maid may William Rauwerdink Party leaders were “shell-shocked” to learn earlier this month that Rauwerdink, hand maid may of West Bloomfield hand maid may Township, was the mastermind behind one of the biggest accounting frauds in U.S. history, until it was upstaged by the Enron and WorldCom scandals. After facing a 16-count criminal indictment for cooking the books at Troy-based Lason Inc., federal court records show that Rauwerdink pleaded guilty to several charges, served nearly four years in prison, and was ordered to pay $285 million in restitution hand maid may to a long list of victims.
As mortifying as that whole secret-past episode is for the GOP, the highest-profile headache tormenting hand maid may the party is the hate-mongering of Republican National Committee member Dave Agema, whose penchant for posting racist, homophobic and Islamaphobic commentaries online has made him the scourge of Republicans nationwide. The RNC, at its recent meeting, embraced the calls coming from far and wide for Agema to resign. But Chairman Reince Priebus & Co. opted to put the matter hand maid may back into the laps of the Michigan State Committee members, urging them to find a procedural way to oust Agema. But the State Committee, which has dodged the issue in the past, will apparently take no action again this weekend, as the heavy favorite to become the new party chair, Ronna Romney McDaniel, continues to walk the fence between the GOP establishment and the tea party types. Romney McDaniel, Mitt Romney’s niece, is apparently determined to keep all Agema-ouster plans under wraps until long after she has settled in as the party boss.
A former state representative from western Michigan, Agema has many supporters who don’t seem to mind that their revealing defenses of his bigotry – blaming it on squishy “political correctness” -- and their steadfast association