by Jack Windsor
Ohio Republican Party Vice-Chairman Bryan Williams sent a letter to State Central Committee (SCC) members Monday congratulating them on their recent election and most notably to warn them of what he believes will be an attempt by current Chairman Bob Paduchik to deny the elected officials the “right and duty to elect five new officers including the chairman, in violation of Ohio [law].”
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Williams told The Ohio Press Network (OPN) in a phone interview that Paduchik lacks the votes to keep his post and that’s why he will try to delay the election. “He’s [Paduchik] lost the committee. I told him that last week. Based on my phone calls there are over 34 (the required majority) and probably closer to 40 people who want a new chairman,” Williams said.
Sources who are members of the SCC also told OPN they believe Paduchik is attempting to defer the vote due to his low support and that the delay would give him time to politick and reverse detractors in hopes that he can remain the party boss.
The Ohio law Williams references in his letter states that the members-elect “shall … meet following the declaration of the results by the boards of elections of the election of members of the State Central Committee at a place and time to be decided by the retiring chairman of the committee in accordance with party rules.”
The “party rules” of the Ohio Republican Party (ORP) declare “at the first meeting of the State Central Committee following the election and qualification of its members, all of its officers…shall be nominated and elected to the State Executive Committee, which shall then be merged into the Republican State Central Committee.”
According to Williams, Paduchik told his second-in-command during a call last week that he doesn’t want to hold an election in September and intends to follow a different section of the rules stating that elections are to also be held in January of every odd-numbered year. Williams said that having an election in January is something he supports but said that installing the new members and allowing them to elect new officers is what’s required during the meeting currently scheduled for September 9.
Paduchik has been the target of lawsuits, scrutiny and increasing criticism from within the party for kicking SCC members off committees, ignoring press inquiries while calling inquisitive journalists “fake news,” badmouthing committee members who asked about millions of dollars inaccurately reported in financial statements, quashing public discussion on issues raised by elected members during public meetings, and rejecting requests to hold roll-call votes on resolutions and endorsement decisions that would allow for the public to be able to see how elected officials voted, and more.
“I can’t speak for everyone who wants a new chairman but speaking globally, they see that Bob has run the state party as an autocrat,” said Williams. “After he got elected, he essentially and summarily dismissed the governing body. I think he believes he is operating like the boss of the central committee and doesn’t accept that the chairman is the employee-designee by election of the state committee and the state committee maintains the authority and the power right now with Bob. The only way to exercise that authority is by voting for a different chairman.”
Williams said that ORP committees, three of which he is a member, haven’t met under Paduchik’s tenure. He also revealed during the interview that he will run to replace Paduchik at the top spot.
OPN contacted Paduchik and the party communications director Dan Lusheck but neither responded.
Shannon Burns of Strongsville, who was reelected to the SCC earlier this month to represent the Greater-Cleveland area, said in a phone interview that Donald Trump-conservatives took enough seats in the recent election and stepped into the gap created by the “failed leadership” of Paduchik. Burns remarked the meeting scheduled for September 9 is supposed to be a changing of the guard—it’s “an opportunity to correct and unify the party.”
Paduchik was mentioned by the former POTUS from the stage when Trump visited Delaware before the May primary election to tout J.D. Vance—his Ohio U.S. Senate endorsement—despite previous frustrations the 45th president had with Paduchik for pushing him to endorse U.S. Senate candidate Jane Timken in the Republican primary, according to a former Trump White House aide.
When asked about Trump tipping his cap to Paduchik in Delaware, albeit among groans and some boos, Burns said “Paduchik may support Trump publicly but it’s undeniable that all the anti-Trump members [of the SCC] are aligned and loyal to Paduchik.”
Burns then went on to note that Paduchik-backed Betty Montgomery was beaten in the race by a newcomer conservative and that the chairman also supported Jo Ann Davidson in her reelection to the state party. Davidson was part of former Gov. John Kasich’s inner circle—the man associated with the Lincoln Project and who spoke at the Democratic National Convention against Trump and in support of the man with the lowest approval in the modern era, President Joe Biden.
A majority will set the agenda
Traditionally, the SCC members would have been on a May primary ballot and installed shortly after the election. However, the 2022 Ohio elections presented a different scenario, one in which there were two primary elections and the state party races were part of the second, which happened on August 2. As a result, the new members-elect have three fewer months in their positions. If Paduchik has it his way, they’ll wait five months before exercising their duties to elect officers to run the state party.
That could be problematic since Assistant Treasurer Katie Deland lost her bid for reelection to newcomer Stephanie Kremer and her position is vacant. Additionally, Treasurer Monica Robb Blasdel won reelection to her SCC seat but is also running in the November general election to be the state representative for Ohio District 79—an area that has elected a Republican by nearly 20 points in recent elections. If Blasdel wins in November, her seat would immediately be vacated and unfilled for three months if elections are stretched to January, according to Burns.
To stop the alleged violation of state law and ORP bylaws—and to get new officers installed by newly elected members in timely manner—Burns and Williams both said that if Paduchik attempts to ramrod his agenda during the September meeting, the majority will simply recapture control and set its own agenda.
“We’re going to have the majority vote to win the course of the meeting, to set a new agenda. That’s just the bottom-line. If Paduchik and others want to believe it takes a supermajority to suspend the rules, that’s simply not true. We’ll have more than 50% of the committee, and the committee has a right to have the chairman of its choice.”
Below is Williams’s proposed meeting agenda.
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Jack Windsor is also an investigative reporter for The Ohio Press Network and a Statehouse correspondent for WHK AM1420 in Cleveland.
Photo “Bob Paduchik” by Bob Paduchik.
