Those totals were never in dispute Saturday, but attention focused on the contest to determine which Michigan Republicans would serve on the various committees that govern the convention and write the party platform. In normal years, such assignments are mostly pro-forma and earn little attention. But this isn't a normal year — and each campaign wants to ensure it stacks the committees with supporters to vote in their favor.

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Michigan has eight seats on four convention committees that oversee the convention rules, credentials for delegates, settles any disputes among delegates and that writes the official GOP platform.

Trump delegates won five of the committee assignments and Kasich delegates won three seats — ensuring that the Ohio governor's campaign will have a say in the proceedings even if he's badly trailing Trump and Cruz.

The Cruz campaign lost all of the available slots and accused the Trump and Kasich teams of forming an unholy alliance to block the Texas senator.

"The Trump and Kasich people stopped that and they kind of had a deal and they wanted their leadership to push through their votes," said Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan GOP chairman and Cruz delegate.

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Anuzis said his team tried to ensure that convention attendees could cast a secret ballot for the RNC committee assignments. The proposal wasn't approved.

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"John Kasich has decided to bypass any attempt to blur his rationale for staying in the race, and is now openly auditioning for Donald Trump's Vice President slot," Anuzis added in an email. "That's the only possible reason for him to instruct his campaign to join forces with Trump for votes on convention committee assignments."

Wendy Day, a Cruz delegate who helped organize supporters in Michigan, said that "The Kasich and Trump teams actually cut a deal and took all those slots. We couldn’t get any of them. That's fine, it’s politics, but it was interesting to see those two campaigns team up."

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Kasich and Trump supporters didn't deny the charges.

Jeff Timmer, a Kasich aide, confirmed that his team teamed up with the Trump camp to block Cruz supporters. Given that nobody had all of the votes needed to prevail, "Deals were inevitable," he said in an email.

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"As much as [the Cruz campaign] has been bragging about their organization in other states, in Michigan they were out-organized by Kasich," Timmer added.

Kasich strategist John Weaver batted away the charges from Cruz supporters and tweeted that "Cruz leadership broke word in Michigan, got greedy & tried 2 screw everyone. Lost all. Rule: pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. #Cleveland"

Scott Hagerstrom, a Trump campaign aide responsible for Michigan, said that “It just sounds like people crying over spilled milk. We won the state. We won the vote. Trump came in first. We put together an excellent team of Trump supporters, quality people. And we’re well-organized and we’re proud that we won five of the five slots we put people up for. It’s representing the will of the people."