Is there such a thing as Chronic Wasting Disease among political parties? Because if there is, an epidemic is brewing among state Republican parties. Suddenly, in several key states, GOP coffers are alarmingly empty in a way that calls to mind the Vermont GOP’s underperformance over the last several years.

Last week, the conservative National Review published a piece called “The Quiet Collapse of Four Key State Republican Parties” that chronicled the woes of the GOP in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan and Minnesota — states “that would be tantalizing targets in a good year.” In addition, the Georgia GOP “is spending a small fortune on the legal fees of those ‘alternate’ Republican electors from the 2020 presidential election.”

The problem, according to the National Review’s Jim Geraghty, is “the replacement of competent, boring, regular state-party officials with quite exciting, blustering nutjobs” more concerned with culture war and ideological purity than the tedious work of party-building.

Sample nutjob: in my home state of Michigan, formerly the home of bland conservatives like Fred Upton and Gerald Ford, the state GOP is now helmed by election conspiratorialist Kristina Karamo, who not only believes that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, but so was the 2022 election in which she lost her bid to become secretary of state by a mere 14 percentage points.

The result of such leadership: Parties in battleground states that are racked by infighting and barely have two nickels to rub together.

The Minnesota GOP, according to its most recent filing, has a grand total of $54 in the bank. That’s right, fifty-four dollars. They also have debts totaling $335,000 on their books. The Arizona GOP has only $23,000, and the Michigan party boasts of a relatively robust $93,000. Now, we’re in an off year election-wise, but still, a healthy GOP in a crucial state ought to be in the high six figures if not more. The Ohio and Wisconsin parties each have more than a million bucks in the bank.

The Georgia party has more than a million on hand, but would have a lot more if it hadn’t spent more than a half million on legal expenses this year alone. Most of that went to defending the slate of fake Trump electors who participated in the ex-president’s plot to overturn the 2020 election.

Nothing anywhere near as dramatic here in Vermont, just more of the same: A party spinning its wheels, showing no signs of making a comeback, and completely failing to capitalize on a prize asset: the most popular governor in the country, Republican Phil Scott.

In the first six months of this year, the VTGOP took in less than $42,000. By comparison, the Vermont Democratic Party raised more than $324,000. As of June 30, the VDP had a better than 10-to-one advantage in cash on hand — $78,477 to the VTGOP’s $7,030. The Dems are burning through a lot more cash than the Repubs because they’ve maintained a robust paid staff of six full-timers instead of going into the customary off-year hibernation.

Meanwhile, the VTGOP has a paid staff of [checks notes] zero.

The party is also short of entertaining nutjobs like Karamo or fellow election conspiratorialist Kari Lake of Arizona, breaking away from her recent residence at Mar-a-Lago to be guest speaker at the MIGOP’s upcoming annual conference, or Colorado’s Dave Williams, last seen ranting against a Republican member of Congress who had the temerity to defeat Williams in a 2022 primary.

No, here in Vermont we’re stuck with the uninspiring Paul Dame and his equally lackluster predecessor Deb Billado. Dame is all in on the customary conspiracy theories like the “Biden crime family” myth and the “Dems are coming for your guns” nonsense, and yet he fails even to entertain. He’s just kind of there, like a cold bowl of oatmeal.

It’s heartening to see the chickens finally coming home to roost in at least some precincts of the post-Trump GOP. I mean, we’re only a few years removed from the Michigan GOP enjoying absolute control of state government. Now, they got nothin’. One can only hope that the spread of Republican Wasting Disease will continue. It’s the reward they deserve for grabbing the steering wheel of Republicanism and driving their movement toward the conspiratorial precipice.