Per the rules, the Michigan Republican Party has 55 days to certify the results of the Michigan Republican Presidential Primary.  That means that this matrix currently available on the MIGOP website (which I took a screenshot of yesterday, and date-time stamped it just in case) is officially unofficial until 23 April.  Until that time, the state committee isn't required to actually comment on those results.  It's mathematically possible that CD-05 and/or CD-10 could flip over into the Santorum column during the certification process, because they're that close, but it's very unlikely that they'll do so.

Now, you won't find this anywhere in the 39-page 2011 Michigan Republican Party Directory, but the Credentials Committee consists of seven people, as follows:

• Bobby Schostak (Party Chair)
  
• Sharon Wise (Party Co-Chair)
  
• Saul Anuzis (National Committeeman)
  
• Holly Hughes (National Committeewoman)
  
• Eric Doster (General Counsel)
  
• Mike Cox (Policy Committee Chair)
  
• Bill Runco (Budget Committee Chair)

From "MI GOP Credentials Committee Gives Romney 2 At-Large Delegates" (MIRS Breaking News - 01 March 2012 @ 12:44):

The Michigan Republican Party (MRP) Credentials Committee voted 4-2 last night to give Mitt Romney both of the state's at-large delegates, State Policy Committee Chair Mike Cox told MIRS today.

Cox was one of two "no" votes on the committee which met via telephone, along with attorney Eric Doster  The "yes" votes included GOP National Committeeman Saul Anuzis, a Romney supporter, and MRP Chair Bobby Schostak.

That would put the delegate split at 16 for Romney and 14 for Rick Santorum, after each candidate won 14 delegates apiece in those divided by Michigan's 14 congressional districts.

As MIRS first reported on Wednesday, the MRP was delaying a final decision on the delegate split until after consulting with attorneys.

Cox said that according to the MRP rules, Santorum and Romney should each get one of Michigan's two at-large delegates based on their take of the popular vote.

"I supported Mitt, but the vote was clearly wrong," Cox said of the Credentials Committee.  "It's kind of like Third World voting.  We published rules and then we voted to change the rules."

He said he expects the Santorum campaign to file a complaint with the Republican National Committee (RNC).

The Santorum campaign filing a complaint . . . you think so?  That means that if this backroom band "decision" isn't reversed before the MIGOP State Convention in May, then Michigan (along with Florida and Arizona) will have an "under appeal" flag sitting beside any honest report of its delegate count.  This will be for no other reason than that in an actual middle of the night, smoke-filled backroom, Team Romney and the Michigan Republican Party establishment elites voted to ignore the results of Tuesday's Primary Election and ex post facto disregard the party's own rules (which were submitted to the Republican National Committee on February 7, 2012).

So far as I'm aware, the vote tally on the question was as follows:

Voting "no":

• Eric Doster
  
• Mike Cox

Voting "yes":

• Bobby Schostak
  
• Sharon Wise
  
• Saul Anuzis
  
• Bill Runco

According to what I've learned, Holly Hughes was not notified of the meeting until after the vote was taken, thus the reason for a missing vote.  I haven't had a chance to speak with Ms. Hughes directly, but I know her well enough to suspect that she would have voted "no" had she been present.  I'm told that as I write this, she's making many phone calls to protest the decision.

Of course, this morning, none other than Saul Anuzis released a statement on how last night's meeting didn't actually violate the rules.  From That's Saul, Folks!:

At the February 4th State Committee meeting held in Lansing, the Credentials Committee unanimously passed the procedures for allocating Michigan's delegates to the National Convention in the event that the RNC imposes the 50% penalty on our delegation.

Last night the Credentials Committee met via teleconference and voted to apply the rules as passed unanimously on February 4th which results in the 2 at large delegates being awarded to the statewide winner, Mitt Romney.

There were no changes in rules or procedures, the Credential Committee only ratified the existing rules as previously passed after some made erroneous claims to the media that the at-large delegates would be split.

There is no disagreement amongst the members that this was the intent of the Credential Committee and there is email traffic between the committee members and counsel discussing the same.

Regrettably, there was an error in the memo drafted and sent to the respective campaigns.  There were questions raised at the time the memo was drafted as to whether the legal language used was accomplishing the goal of the committee and we were advised that it was, but now it is clear that the memo did not properly communicate the intent of the committee.  The email traffic surrounding the drafting of the memo in early February makes explicitly clear what the intent of the committee was.

The committee convened again last night to affirm that the intent was clear and that the memo was inaccurate.  That affirmation came in a 4-2 vote.  While we all regret the error in the memo, it does not change what was voted on by the committee, which was to award the two at-large delegates to the statewide winner.  It was premature for any candidate to be declaring the delegate count prior to an official announcement by the Michigan Republican Party

Yup, nothing to see here, folks; just a miscommunication with regard to the intent of our original memorandum.  Everyone's in agreement that the earlier memo was wrong, and now we're doing it the right way.  We're moving along now.

Except that the memo that Saul links to was put out by Kim Jorns (MIGOP Executive Director) just this morning!  Conspicuous by its absence is a link to the original memo (dated February 7, 2012) that was sent to all four candidate campaigns and copied directly to Reince Priebus.  I'd love to get my hands on that original memo, because I'd gladly bet a Salmon P. Chase that it outlines a procedure that follows exactly MIGOP rule 19-C(2).  All the creative rewriting on the planet isn't going to save Mister National Popular Vote, or Michigan's Native Son, if that original memo happens to surface.

In the meantime, I'm thinking that we ought to be making as much hay as possible out of this, as well as applying lots and lots of pressure to the MIGOP Credentials Committee to revisit last night's decision.  The phone numbers you'll need are these:

• 517-487-5413 - Michigan Republican Party Main Office, through which you can reach Credentials Committee members Robert Schostak (rschostak@migop.org), Sharon Wise (swise@migop.org), and Holly Hughes (holly@hollyhughes.com)
  
• 517-394-9940 - Saul Anuzis (sanuzis@gmail.com), Credentials Committee member (office phone number for Coast to Coast Strategies)
  
• 517-371-8241 - Eric Doster (edoster@fosterswift.com), Credentials Committee member (phone number provided by the MIGOP directory)
  
• 734-953-4092 - Mike Cox (cox1916@msn.com), Credentials Committee member (phone number provided by the MIGOP directory)
  
• 313-565-3833 - Bill Runco (wjrunco@aol.com), Credentials Committee member (phone number provided by the MIGOP directory)

And, for what it's worth, an organization calling itself "Stop the MI GOP Corruption" has launched an online petition drive in an effort to shame the Credentials Committee into revisiting and reversing its decision.  (I find signature # 45 a tad interesting.)  I recommend sharing the link around.