Despite a Detroit News story to the contrary, the Michigan Republican Party is not in financial difficulty, state GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis told a crowd of the party faithful at the Eastside Republican Club P.A.C. annual dinner April 24 at Sindbad's Restaurant in Detroit.

The reality is that the state organization has $230,000 in debts and $252,000 in cash on hand, Anuzis said.

He blamed Republican “brethren” for feeding false information to the newspaper.

“I think most people took the article in good faith,” Anuzis said, “even after the retraction on page 20 on Monday.”

The front page Detroit News story appeared Friday, April 18, and a follow-up story by Charlie Cain was published in some editions of the paper the next day.

Lita M. McKeehan is P.A.C. chairman. In addition to McKeehan, P.A.C. members include John Stempfle, Ed Joseph, Tom McCleary, Linda Solterisch, Carol Hackleman, Jeffrey Neilson, and Alice Baetz. The ERC chair, Julie Corbett, serves as ex officio member. of the group.

At the P.A.C. dinner, Anuzis was introduced by Tom McCleary, ERC vice chairman and emcee for the event.

“He's made a lot of contributions people don't realize,” McCleary said of Anuzis. “He was the driving force behind the new GOP office in Lansing.

“He's a technocrat who has invigorated and computerized the Republican Party of Michigan, much to the consternation of old Republicans like me. He put the Michigan GOP in the 21st century.

“Saul has been a good spokesman for the party in Michigan.”

McCleary said the test of a political party and its local organizations is to win elections.

“We have not carried a presidential election in the state in 20 years,” he said. “This is a grassroots appeal that we can win the state this time.

“Second, we have to get the state House back into the Republican fold if we are going to end this silliness in Lansing.”

While he did not back John McCain in the January Michigan Primary, Anuzis believes the presumptive GOP presidential candidate “offers us a very unique opportunity.”

“For us to win an election, we have to win the independents,” Anuzis said. “We don't have to move to the left. Reagan didn't.

“This is not going to be an election in pastel colors. It is going to be in bold colors. The difference between John McCain and Barack Obama or whoever wins the Democratic nomination is going to be stark.”

Obama is probably the most unqualified candidate to ever run for the presidency, Anuzis said.

“Can you imagine the 25-year-old lawyers coming out of Harvard that Barack Obama is going to appoint to the Supreme Court?” he said.

As for Hillary Clinton, Anuzis said, “If her qualification is she spent eight years in the White House, so did the chef.”

The state GOP chairman said he has always been a big believer in primaries.

“A good, healthy primary usually gives you a better election cycle going out,” he said. “This is the first time since Ronald Reagan that a GOP candidate is leading both Democratic candidates this early in the campaign.”

Anuzis said he was criticized last year for accusing Republican congressmen of “spending like drunken sailors,” but he is unapologetic.

“We have lost our brand. We have lost what we stood for,” he said. “We're being `Republicanlite.' We've become what we disliked.”

He warned that capital gains, inheritance and other tax cuts are due to expire in two years and that the Democrats are looking at “Cuban-style health care.”

“If we socialize medicine in the United States, where are the Canadians going to go for health care?” he asked. “It's a crazy system that hasn't worked anywhere in the world. And it's an expensive system.”

He also feared a Democratic presidency and Congress would allow Iraqi oil to fall into terrorists' hands, which they will use to “go after us.”

Again, he chided, “We Republicans have to reestablish our brand. What's the difference between Republicans and Democrats? Fiscal conservativism and living within your means.”

Marti Miller, of Grosse Pointe Woods, asked Anuzis if Michigan's delegates to the Republican National Convention would be seated, considering Michigan held its primary earlier than was authorized by the national GOP.

“By going early, we lose half our delegates,” Anuzis said.

McCleary asked what the outlook was for Republicans taking back the Michigan House in November.

Anuzis indicated that McCain's coattails might be long enough to carry state Republicans into office. “He is running well,” he said of McCain's campaign.

Another PAC dinner attendee asked Anuzis what he thought of Attorney General Mike Cox or Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land running for governor next time.

“The race for governor is on,” he said. “It's almost and embarrassment of riches on our side.”

McKeehan welcomed the guests to the annual dinner and invited Grosse Pointe Park Mayor Palmer Heenan to say the invocation.

McCleary recognized the elected officials present and also introduced five of the six Republican candidates who have filed to run for the 1st District state House of Representatives seat being vacated by term limited Ed Gaffney, R-Grosse Pointe Farms.

The five candidates running for the seat and who were present at the PAC dinner were Therese Joseph, Mary Treder Lang, John Simon, John Stempfle and Pete Waldmeir. Dan Grano is the sixth Republican candidate in the race.

“The day after the election we are all behind whoever wins the primary,” McCleary said. “But we need all the support we can get to retain the seat for the Republicans.”