One of the leaders of the tea party takeover of the Washtenaw County delegate convention says he regrets that he called GOP State Chair Ron Weiser arrogant.

Dennis Moore, chairman of Willow Run Tea Party Caucus, put out a press release after Weiser failed to get support as a delegate in the 15th district and was relegated to alternate.

But Moore said Wednesday that Weiser was not the focus of the tea party voting at the convention. Moore said he regrets his comments have caused an inaccurate portrait of a Weiser vs. the tea party movement.

"I mishandled that and allowed it to be construed that way," Moore said.

Instead, Moore said the tea party movement focused on getting as many of their delegates elected so they could support Ruth Johnson as a candidate for Secretary of State. Moore said he doesn't believe Weiser supported Johnson.

"It was not our motivation to vote anyone out on the floor," Moore said. "Ron Weiser was not on our radar to embarrass or vote against. We simply had our slate of people to get elected. This was mostly about supporting Ruth."

Moore said he is putting up a "confidence" vote on his leadership on Friday at the Willow Run Tea Party Caucus meeting because of the stir his press release created.

Tony DeMott, state coordinator for the Campaign for Liberty, said he was one of the organizers of the tea party delegate victories at the Washtenaw convention and said Weiser wasn't even discussed.

"Not once did we discuss Ron Weiser or whether he would be elected or not," DeMott said. "It didn't even enter our minds. It wasn't a consideration of ours."

DeMott said instead, the focus was on getting tea partiers elected to delegate spots that had been presupposed to go to long-time GOP supporters.

"We deserve to go," DeMott said. "Those folks (GOP operatives) have daily control over the party. We feel that we have the one chance for all these grassroots people who give tirelessly with little recognition, and this is their chance at the state convention."

"There was no intention to slight anyone," DeMott said. "We didn't go in with the intention to defeat people. It was to get our voices heard. There was no attack on Ron Weiser in that convention."

Mark Boonstra, the Washtenaw County GOP chair, said it was his decision to nominate Weiser and three others as delegates. He said Weiser didn't ask to be a delegate, but Boonstra did it out of respect for the chairman.

"For anyone to suggest that our state party chairman was humbled by failing in his bid to become a delegate to the state party convention simply doesn't know the facts," Boonstra said. "They just wanted their people elected because they are supporting Ruth Johnson."

As a retired state of Michigan worker, Jeannie Aten of Chelsea was concerned that Rick Snyder was going to get rid of her health benefits.

"If you are," Aten told the GOP gubernatorial candidate at his first town hall since winning the primary, "I'm not going to vote for you."

About 180 people filled an old train depot Tuesday in Chelsea and fired questions at Snyder ranging from what to do about unions to how to handle tax subsidies for businesses.

Aten said after the meeting that she voted for Andy Dillon in the Democrat primary for governor and her husband voted for Peter Hoekstra in the GOP race.

"When it (the primary) was over, we looked at each other and said, 'Back to the drawing board,'" Aten said.

And that was Snyder's message, too.

"Fixing Michigan is not good enough," Snyder said. "It's time to reinvent the state."

Snyder handled Aten's question by saying that there needed to be a "discussion" on state retiree health care.

"What is financially affordable?" Snyder asked.

Snyder spoke on a myriad of topics for about an hour.

He said the state's current method of economic development "was not the way to do it."

The state was picking "winners and losers" by favoring industries and "overusing incentives like popcorn and candy," Snyder said.

The incentives should be scaled back and be used to create a competitive playing field and then let the free market take over, he said.

"We sort of lost our way," he noted.

Snyder called "right to work" legislative "extremely divisive" and said  "it is not on my agenda." He said it was the equivalent to a "World War III discussion."

He believes that public employee compensation is one of the toughest issues facing the next governor.

"Is it financially affordable?" Snyder asked. "What is it comparable to in the private sector? If you can't check those boxes, we need to have a discussion."

Snyder said the one question that gets the fastest response from public employees is when he asks them what their retirement date is.

He blamed the poor morale of the public-sector workforce on bureaucracy and poor management, and told the crowd that if he had a business where all the employees were looking at their retirement date, "I would feel like a failure."

Snyder dodged a question from a public school employee about school funding. He told him that the state had to take a "step back" and look at what was the underlying reason for having an education system. He said the state needs to look at how it deals with academics, how it rewards successful teachers and how to minimize overhead.

"We need to invest in our education system," Snyder said.

In the end, Aten said Snyder has won her vote.

"I liked his answers," Aten said after the meeting. "I think he has a good feel for what has to be done. And something has to be done."