Meet Bob Schostak. He's the man openly campaigning for chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. Seriously, it's no secret that he wants to be chairman.

Many party-types also suspect he's the handpicked successor of Ron Weiser, the M.I.A. chairman. Weiser is getting a lot of attention for the money that's enabled the GOP to compete and perhaps even win back the State House and pick up several congressional seats that were unimaginable just a few months ago. But in reality, Weiser has done nothing as chairman. He isn't accessible to the grassroots, he won't give public speeches, and generally refuses to take on the Democrat Party under chairman Mark Brewer.

The situation has become so bad that the Michigan Republican Party has turned to former chairman Saul Anuzis, now a national committee member, to provide the red meat commentary and quotes that the chairman should be providing in an election year. This of course delights Anuzis, who wants to be national committee chairman. Recall that he ran in 2009 against Michael Steele, who won and has been an utter failure as chairman.

So what's the problem with Schostak? He's unknown to many outside the elite club of high dollar donors. On the flip side, he's getting out there and working the grassroots. In fact, he's done more in the last couple weeks in his campaign for chairman than Weiser has done in two years. Schostak's pages on Facebook and Twitter even claim he's knocking doors for candidates, though no photographic evidence has been produced. Schostak takes pictures of virtually everything he does and then posts it online, but curiously there's been no door knocking photos despite his claim that he's pounding the pavement.

The biggest complaint that people talk about are Schostak's connections to Democrats like Al Gore, John Kerry, Carl Levin, Debbie Stabenow and Jennifer Granholm.

Nationally, Schostak gave $1,000 on 11/11/1999 to the presidential campaign of Bill Bradley and followed that up with $1,000 to Gore's presidential campaign on 06/24/1999. On 06/27/2007, he gave failed 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Kerry $500 for his U.S. Senate campaign.

He also gave $666 to Democrat Mark Udall of Colorado on 11/14/2007 and $500 to Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island on 06/12/2007. Connecticut's Joe Lieberman and Maryland's Ben Cardin also received money from Schostak. Lieberman got $1,000 on 10/23/2006 and Cardin received $250 on 07/18/2005. In Ohio, Schostak gave $500 to Eric Fingerhut's U.S. Senate campaign on 07/19/2004.

Back in Michigan, Schostak gave $1,000 to Granholm on 10/30/1998, another $1,000 on 12/14/1999, and $3,400 on 04/21/2004. He also gave $1,000 to Levin on 08/01/2o02 and another  $1,000 03/26/2001. Back in 1996, Levin received $1,000 (08/02/1996) while his brother, Congressman Sander Levin, got $250 (09/27/1996). On 03/29/2002, Dave Fink, who was running for Congress against then-Republican incumbent Joe Knollenberg, received $1,000 from Schostak. Stabenow received $500 from Schostak on 06/09/2000. That contribution came when she was challenging Spencer Abraham, who was the sitting Republican U.S. senator. There's no recorded contribution from Schostak to Abraham.

In 1998, Schostak gave $200 to the 1998 campaign of Democrat Doug Ross, while his brother gave $2,200. I know a lot of people will claim that rich businessmen have to play both sides of the aisle, but let's not forget 1998 was the last time John Engler ran for governor. By giving money to Ross, Schostak directly opposed Engler, which is very ironic because Schostak attended a recent fundraiser with the ex-governor.

And only weeks before the 2008 election, Schostak gave $2,000 (10/07) to the campaign of Democrat Laurence Deitch. His contribution helped defeat Republican candidates John LaFond and Susan Brown.

Here are some of Schostak's other Democratic contributions:

    * $500 to Gilda Jacobs on 06/01/2006
    * $300 to Burton Leland on 04/17/2003
    * $250 to Steve Tobocman on 04/16/2004
    * $100 to Gabe Leland on 09/02/2004