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Cleveland
Plain Dealer...
Ohio
House speaker blasts state GOP
chair for undermining the party
Saturday, December 03, 2011
By James Ewinger
Photo:
Kevin DeWine, Ohio GOP Chairman
To see DeWine's response, click here.
COLUMBUS,
Ohio -- Infighting among
Ohio Republicans has reached a new level as House Speaker William G.
Batchelder
accused state GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine of undermining the party and of
publicly blasting Gov. John Kasich.
In
a memo sent to the House Republican
Caucus, Batchelder lists specific complaints about DeWine’s leadership.
Friction
between DeWine and other top
Republicans has hardly been a secret, but this marks the first time
accusations
have been disclosed so openly.
“We
cannot have a situation where the
state party, and the governor, and the speaker of the House do not have
a
trusting and cooperative partnership,” Batchelder wrote.
Among
other grievances, the speaker
said DeWine refused to allocate party resources to House Republicans --
a claim
Kasich supporters have made privately regarding the chairman’s role in
the
gubernatorial race last year.
On
Saturday, a Batchelder spokeswoman
said the speaker’s memo was intended as a call for DeWine’s
resignation. But
several hours later, Batchelder, through his chief of staff, backed
away from
that stance, acknowledging DeWine serves at the pleasure of the State
Central
Committee. The speaker instead called more generally for a change in
direction,
whether under DeWine or someone else.
A
text of a speech DeWine made Friday
to central committee members shows that he told members “the governor’s
political team and others have begun aggressively recruiting candidates
to
challenge those of you in the room.”
In
a letter directed at Batchelder on
Saturday, DeWine said, “I cannot fathom why you would consider my
remarks to
the central committee as anything less than a passionate call for party
unity.”
Asked
if Kasich wants DeWine to step
down, the governor’s press secretary, Rob Nichols, said, “The governor
wants
someone who can carry the Republican agenda.”
Alex
Arshinkoff, Summit County’s
powerful GOP chair, said that while he had not read the speaker’s memo,
he
called Batchelder a great party leader.
“I’ve
never known him to lie,”
Arshinkoff said.
Dewine
is a cousin of Mike DeWine, the
state attorney general.
Read
this and other articles at the
Cleveland Plain Dealer
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