Michigan Messenger writers Ed Brayton and Todd Heywood were evicted from the Michigan Republican Party convention in downtown Lansing Friday night.

“No one from your organization will be credentialed,” a MI-GOP spokesman told Messenger this evening.

The spokesperson refused to discuss the situation further on the record.
 
Earlier in the evening, the same spokesperson had signed Brayton and Heywood in to the event saying they did not require media credentials. An hour later, when Heywood was attempting to take pictures of Attorney General Mike Cox, Matt Frendewey, a spokesperson for Cox, indicated that Heywood needed to have media credentials.

Frendewey had been preventing Heywood from taking pictures of Cox, who has declared a plan to run for Governor.

Heywood returned to the credentialing room to discuss the situation with the spokesperson, who said he had been told by unnamed parties that credentials were in fact necessary and no one from Michigan Messenger would be credentialed for the event.

Heywood and Brayton were then told they could not cover the speech of Miss. Gov. Haley Barbour. While the two were allowed to continue operations from the lobby of the Radisson Hotel, they have been barred access to convention events, including tomorrow’s convention votes at the Lansing Convention Center where a new state leadership is expected to be elected.

Heywood and Brayton will be at the Convention Center tomorrow.