NOVI, Mich. -- Mitt Romney's top Michigan backers have flooded the zone in the last 48 hours with emails to state Republicans, praising the former Massachusetts governor and condemning his top opponent in the state, Rick Santorum.
State House Speaker Jase Bolger sent an email Sunday night in support of Romney that asked state Republicans to do the same, and since then, Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-Mich.), and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) have sent similar notes.
And on Tuesday morning, former state GOP chairman Saul Anuzis sent a scathing email criticizing Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, for running a robocall in the state targeting Democrats and asking them to vote for him and against Romney.
Anuzis' email was followed up by a similar one from Rusty Hills, another former state party chairman. Richardville also sent an email condemning Santorum, his second in two days to the mailing list that goes out to state elected officials, GOP committee members, county chairs, and party activists.
The emails were provided to The Huffington Post by a source in the Michigan GOP.
The language in the emails from Anuzis and Richardville was strikingly similar.
"This is no way for a person to act that wants to be the Republican nominee to take on President Obama in the fall. As a leader in the party and someone who cares about making sure Republicans are voting for our Republican nominee, I urge all Republicans in Michigan to denounce these 'dirty tricks,'" Anuzis wrote.
Richardville's email read: "As a leader in the party and someone who cares about protecting the integrity of our nomination process, I urge all Republicans in Michigan to denounce these "dirty tricks" which would allow Democrats, who have no intention of voting Republican come fall, to interfere with the selection of our party's nominee."
Both Anuzis and Richardville included the same line, verbatim, near the end of their emails: "Please join us in condemning this behavior and sending a strong message that Republicans, not Democrats, should be choosing our party's nominee."
Hills added a twist to his missive.
"If this keeps up, soon we will see Senator Santorum and his team asking the Socialists and the Green Party members to vote in the Republican Primary. This is outrageous. It’s wrong. And we should oppose it," Hills wrote.
Anuzis denied that there was any coordination or concerted push.
"The message and outrage is similar...we all have our own lists," he told The Huffington Post in an email.
A Santorum campaign aide said that the volume of the emails from Romney backers suggested that they were growing anxious about the results of the election, and were pressing to keep party loyalists from moving toward Santorum.