On February, 6, 2026, the Grand Haven Tribune gave almost an entire page of their paper to an opinion hit piece from a community columnist. The writer is clearly uninformed about the structuring of the Party and what we are here to do and accomplish. Additionally, he seems to be completely unaware that the Party has several different factions and also that there are several fake Republicans in Ottawa County's government.

We responded right away to the peice on the Tribune's website, doing our best to educate the author and inviting him to personally meet with us. He hasn't reached out to us so it seems perhaps we've convinced him he's uninformed? We're not sure, but we want you to see what we said in response to his assertions. A screenshot of his piece, [although a little fuzzy] is included at the bottom given it may still be behind a paywall at the Tribune.

OCRP Response:

Hello Mark, We'd love to meet with you! Perhaps you can help us better understand how as a Party we can do a better job. There are several claims in your piece we can assure that aren't altogether accurate, but this isn't your fault. **We do understand how it may appear on the surface. Yet, the way the inner-workings of the Party operate are this: The OCRP EC has 24 Nominated members elected to serve on the EC by the Delegate body. There are also 24 Elected official, who are an automatic member of the OCRP Executive Committee for having won their Primary in August of 2024. As such, these members are given the right and the privilege of attending and voting at our Executive Committee meetings which are held *MONTHLY.* We don't disagree what you're suggesting about the prosecutor and the sheriff; neither of them have **ever attended** or been to a single Executive Committee meeting where they could have shared these types of ideas/concerns with the other members or been able to help govern or steer the Party in these directions (--not one meeting since August of 2024).

Also, many current members of the BOC have openly said they don't 'need the Party.' They are not interested in America-First policies or associating with the OCRP in spite of the fact that they 'wear' the Republican name. We understand how this is perhaps confusing to the Public on the local Republican Brand. To be **clear,** those of us in the Party who do NOT wish for the status quo to remain stagnant, DO want Electeds to speak out against crime, especially when it involves children. It is unfortunate however that the sections of the Party who ARE in fact, most passionate about victims of crime are not the same ones as are in an elected position and therefore the messaging doesn't get as much 'noise' as an elected would make if they said it themselves. **We do wish more Electeds would speak against childhood crime. [Some regularly do.]

The Nominated members of the EC are all passionate about these issues and it is the reason the Nominated members remain on the committee, to try to influence change in the Republican Party. The Nominated members WANT to change the old Republican brand. Unfortunately, there are several democrats wearing the 'Republican' name on the BOC and we suspect it is the reason why you don't see the changes you long for. **We would love to meet with you. If you reach out to the number or email on our website, we will have the Chair or the Vice Chair set up a meeting with you.

Regarding the prosecutor and sheriff. We hardly know them. It does seem the sheriff is doing a good job at keeping the County safe. We are uncertain of the prosecutor's case records or what the number of prosecutions against criminals of children have been brought. She doesn't speak to us. *We do hope the number is high and that her prosecutorial numbers are higher than the amount of cases brought when she was the assistance prosecutor prior to 2024. We endorsed her competitor in the Republican Primary because of this issue. However, we leave room for this to have perhaps changed and we hope it has. --If she were to attend our meetings, we would have an accurate number for you.