County GOP chief, Morgan disagree on endorsement

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By Doug Page, Staff Writer Updated 11:29 AM Sunday, March 14, 2010

KETTERING — At the Montgomery County Republican Party Lincoln Reagan Day Dinner on Saturday, March 13, Chairman Greg Gantt tried to defuse the tension over whether he had endorsed one of two GOP statewide candidates.

“The last couple of days we’ve been twisted up in words, in silliness,” Gantt told the gathering.

On Friday, Gantt asked state auditor candidate Seth Morgan, a Huber Heights state representative, to stop claiming Gantt’s endorsement.

On Saturday, Morgan’s campaign released a partial transcript of “a conference call with supporters on the evening of Jan. 14, 2010,” according to Rob Scott, the campaign’s communications director.

“Myself and others are going (to) stand behind you, and support you and encourage you to go for the auditor’s position,” Gantt said, according to the transcript. “I am behind you 100 percent.”

Gantt has made positive and supportive public comments about Morgan, including some when Morgan launched his bid for auditor after Ohio Auditor Mary Taylor became Republican candidate John Kasich’s lieutenant governor running mate.

Gantt stopped short of calling that an endorsement, saying that he supports all the elected Republican officials in the county.

Then later Saturday, the campaign of Dave Yost, the Delaware County prosecutor also seeking the Republican nomination for state auditor, released a letter from state Sen. Gary Cates, R-West Chester, harshly denouncing Morgan for his use of Gantt’s name in the campaign. Cates has endorsed Yost.

“Your campaign is not living up to the very high standards voters expect from our leaders,” Cates wrote, adding he had heard from colleagues that Morgan was using their names for endorsements “you did not earn, or were specifically told you did not have.”

Scott said Cates’ letter is “a lame attack from the Yost campaign.”

Yost and Morgan appeared Saturday before the local Republicans, many of whom sported Elect Morgan stickers on their coats and dresses.

“I feel like a Methodist in a Baptist church,” Yost joked.

“I feel like a Baptist in a Baptist church,” Morgan later responded.

Staff writer Lynn Hulsey contributed to this report.

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