Today, February 1st, the state central committee of the Ohio Republican Party is receiving phone calls and facing on-the-spot protests in Columbus regarding the heavy-handedness of the ORP in clearing the Ohio Attorney General primary field for Mike DeWine, and for endorsing David Yost for the Ohio Auditor primary over a qualified CPA, Seth Morgan.
The ORP has mishandled statewide elections in the past, anointing candidates (think Taft) based on campaign treasuries, political favors, and name recognition while throwing consideration of a candidate’s competencies, qualifications, and principles under the bus.
This year has been particularly egregious, as I’ve pointed out in a prior post about the DeWine, Yost, and Morgan machinations of the ORP. It’s amazing how, in the span of a few short weeks, the Republican hold on the key apportionment board seat of Ohio Auditor went from a virtual lock to a near forfeit to the Democrats. The ball was clearly fumbled by the ORP, and Seth Morgan, a qualified CPA, recovered the ball. The ORP, however, is telling the grassroots that we are all blind, that there was no fumble and the ball was handed off to Yost. We’ll soon find out if the rank-and-file Republicans of Ohio can swallow such revisionism. We weren’t doing much swallowing in 2006, when scandals involving Bob Ney and Tom Noe had sickened our stomachs.
It is no secret that the Republican Party at the state level is asking party chairs at the county level to shut out Seth Morgan in the Auditor race against Yost, shut out Sandy O’Brien in the Secretary of State race against Jon Husted, and shut out Tom Ganley in the U.S. Senate race against Rob Portman. Personally, not only do I favor Morgan over Yost, I favor O’Brien over Husted, and, if you read this blog post about my visit to Senate offices in DC, you’d completely understand why I support Ganley over creatures of the DC Beltway, such as Rob Portman.
For further reading, including breaking developments regarding today’s protests, I recommend:
From Bizzy Blog: http://www.bizzyblog.com/2010/02/01/breaking-no-more-rino-establishment-candidates-tea-party-e-mail-and-planned-protest/
From Cleveland Tea Party Patriots: http://clevelandteapartypatriots.blogspot.com/2010/01/ohio-republican-party-kicks-oh.html
and
http://clevelandteapartypatriots.blogspot.com/2010/02/tea-party-patriot-action-alert-ohio.html
From Thurber’s Thoughts: http://thurbersthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/02/no-more-rino-candidates-movement-gains.html
Buckeye RINO 
February 2, 2010 at 7:39 am
How long does one fight and protest? At what point will supporters leave the group when the group doesn’t represent their agenda or values?
February 2, 2010 at 12:22 pm
I suppose how the elections turn out will show whether Kevin DeWine remains GOP chair. If the Ohio GOP crashes and burns in November, especially if Republicans are faring well in other parts of the nation, then DeWine might not be able to stave off an ouster. Some critics within the GOP will probably wait and see how that unfolds. If Republicans have mediocre results, I don’t expect the squabbling within the party to stop. If Republicans sweep the elections, I don’t know if critics within the party will be silenced or not, but Kevin DeWine probably hopes that they will be.
Do I foresee a mass exodus from the GOP to such parties as the Constitution Party or the Libertarians? Not at present. It seems most will try to stay in the party to grapple for ascendancy. If some prominent elected officials or prominent former elected officials defected from the GOP to parties such as the Libertarians, I think the Libertarians might see a big boost in membership, as some might assess the viability of Libertarian candidates in a whole new light. Also, if Libertarians found vast sources of funding, like if billionaires bestowed generous donations upon the party, you’d see Libertarian ranks swell (though, in that case, some of those new Libertarians would be attracted to the party by the smell of money, not necessarily by the lure of Libertarian principles, in which case, events in the future Libertarian party would likely mirror what’s happening now within the GOP).
February 2, 2010 at 12:37 pm
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