The Donald Trump operation in Michigan apparently combined forces with the Kasich team to freeze out Ted Cruz supporters from several important committee assignments.

Cruz may have tried to be too clever for his own good. Originally the Cruz team claims they had a deal with the Kasich operation to split 8 delegates for important committee assignments, including the all important rules committee.

But the Kasich team switched gears and sided with the Trump people to sideline the Texas Senator's delegate choices., The Kasich team claims Cruz tried a complete takeover of all 8 delegates at the last minute.

CNN:

The Michigan delegation picked one Trump supporter, Matt Hall, and one Kasich supporter, Judi Schwalbach, for the two seats on the powerful rules committee. The Cruz campaign lost votes for both seats.

The rules committee seats have become highly coveted prizes for their role in shaping a contested convention in Cleveland. After the delegates are selected in each state, they meet as a group and pick the members of four convention committees, the most important of which is the rules committee, which will ultimately decide who can be nominated president.

Michigan Cruz leader Saul Anuzis said they were "double-crossed" by Kasich's campaign. The Kasich delegates were supposed to vote with Cruz delegates, he said, but switched sides and voted with Trump behind closed doors Saturday afternoon.

Kasich's delegate director in Michigan, Jeff Timmer, said the Cruz campaign broke their end of the deal when they tried to win all eight delegation seats.

He said they finished their slate of Trump and Kasich candidates about 10 minutes before walking into the delegation meeting.

"The Cruz campaign tried a takeover and they failed miserably," Timmer said. "It backfired and they ended up with nothing. There's been all these reports about how they're out-organizing everybody. Not here."

Trump's national delegate director, Brian Jack, called it a "big win" for Trump.

"The most important votes occurred this afternoon -- we went 5-0. Five delegates for Mr. Trump ran for committee assignments; all five were elected," Jack said.

He added, "This was a big win for Team Trump. We won 25 delegates from Michigan last month, and now, at least 25 supporters of Mr. Trump will be delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Cruz had a lot more success in Colorado where he took all 33 delegates available at the state convention. It was a tour de force performance for the Cruz delegate team  while the Trump operation was left spinning its wheels:

On Saturday, Trump backers passed out flyers at the convention site with official campaign slate of 13 delegates and 13 alternates accompanied by their three-digit number position on the 600-plus person ballot. Seven of the names, however, directed people to the wrong number and one delegate's name was misspelled. Other candidates did not have errors on their slates.

In one case, an erroneous number corresponded with a Cruz supporter. A second flyer handed out by the Trump campaign contained four mismatched names and numbers.

Among the names listed incorrectly on both flyers: Becky Mizel.

It was the second major error concerning campaign materials this week. On Thursday, a Trump slate of three names in the 7th Congressional District convention contained two that weren't listed on the ballot. The campaign's state director, Patrick Davis, said they failed to pay the necessary fees to qualify.

Another disaster for Trump at the South Carolina GOP convention:

Trump, who handed the reins of much of his campaign this week to strategist Paul Manafort in an effort to shore up his operation before the nomination slips away, was swept out of delegate slots up for grabs at Colorado’s state convention. Adding to his woes, he picked up just one delegate of six on the ballot in South Carolina. The most painful result, though, may have been Trump’s failure to capture two of three slots in his strongest South Carolina congressional district.

In fact, Trump lost five of the six delegate seats on the ballot in South Carolina’s 3rd and 7th congressional districts. Ted Cruz nabbed a delegate in the 7th district, while another, Alan Clemmons, remained uncommitted despite Trump’s dominant finish there in the state’s Feb. 20 primary. (The Manhattan billionaire won 43 percent of the district’s vote, to Cruz’s 20 percent and Kasich’s 6 percent.) Cruz also won two of three delegates in the 3rd district, while a third — Susan Aiken, a supporter of Marco Rubio — will go to the convention as an uncommitted delegate.

Cruz is fighting tooth and nail for every single delegate. So far, he has had spectacular success. The hiccup in Michigan was more than offset by his gains in Colorado, South Carolina, North Dakota, Louisiana, and Arizona. It is likely that Trump will go on a winning streak later this month as primaries are held up and down the east coast. But as long as Cruz can continue to pick up a few delegates here and there at conventions, he will be able to stay within striking distance of Trump and deny him a delegate majority going into Cleveland.