Two conservatives with clout in Ohio say they can fix the Ohio Republican Party, which they say has members that are too elite, lean left politically, and are too vindictive toward others.
Those ideas include making Ohio a right-to-work state and changing its primary election system, they told The Ohio Star.
“The Republicans here are afraid of their own shadow. We are still a union state, and that is probably one of our issues. They are afraid to go right-to-work,” said Ray Warrick (pictured, right), who chaired the Warren County Republican Party for two years.
“They are afraid of upsetting the unions and that is because all but about four or five state representatives and all but about one state senator, Republicans, take money from the unions. They are all in the bag. In many states a Republican would never get a dime from the unions.”
The odds of Ohio going right-to-work?
“Slim and none,” Warrick said.
“Mike DeWine as governor has said it is just not on the table. But it is the only thing that should be on the table.”
According to BNA.com, Ohio is one of five states that has a “labor-Republican alliance.”
Meanwhile, various news outlets or other websites, including Cleveland.com, the Kent-based WKSU, and The Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, reported union endorsements for Ohio Republicans.
WKSU, in reporting on a labor union endorsement for DeWine, said “a nod for a Republican is not unusual for the International Union of Operating Engineers.”
Meanwhile, John McAvoy (pictured, left), a Tea Party official in northwest Ohio, offered this advice to state GOP officials.
“Do not endorse in the primaries. We have pressed the party to do this, and you will see more pressure on the party to do this in this next election cycle,” McAvoy said.
“If you do endorse, we don’t want you to play favorites. What we want you to do is make party resources equally available to all candidates. That’s huge.”
A spokesman with The Ohio GOP did not return The Star’s requests for comment before Monday’s stated deadline.
As The Star reported, McAvoy and Warrick believe DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, both Republicans, made a secret and underhanded pact to assist one another’s political fortunes.
The two men allegedly did this during the 2018 elections. Initially, Husted ran for governor, but he later dropped out of that race to seek the lieutenant governor’s job, as DeWine’s running mate.
Spokesmen for both DeWine and Husted deny the accusation.
Also, as reported, any conservatives not among the establishment class Republicans are kept at a distance. Once in office, these powerful RINOs use their power and influence to penalize people who speak up against them — and this includes even the relatives of the people who don’t conform, Tea Party members said.
– – –
Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Endorsing a primary candidate is important, so stopping the practice would be helpful. Also very helpful would be limiting the other pro-incumbent tactic: running a large number of candidates in order to split the vote so many ways that the incumbent wins on name recognition alone. How to stop it? Require a runoff between the top 2 candidates when the winner has less than 50% of the primary vote.