Party chairman since January 2009, DeWine has been under siege from Kasich to step aside, causing a bitter fight for control of the central committee in the March 6 primary election and tearing apart the state party as the presidential race heats up.
On March 18, DeWine said he would not seek a new two-year term in January, but Kasich, through his political operatives, insisted that DeWine step aside immediately. Kasich was preparing to overthrow DeWine at the April 13 meeting, but DeWine will remove that possibility, even as his allies claim they have enough central committee votes.
Friends of DeWine said the chairman concluded that Kasich and his allies would make his life miserable until he left.
In his letter, DeWine addresses the intraparty battle: “Now, factions within our party are aligned to fight over who is best to lead us forward. A meeting looms where that fight could erupt into a party-splitting dispute that no one will win and everyone will lament.
Former Ohio GOP Chairman Robert T. Bennett, 73, is poised to come out of retirement to lead the party, at least on an interim basis. He is expected to take over at the April 13 meeting.
Bennett, the most successful party chairman in state history, was an intermediary the past week between DeWine and Kasich allies, including Beth Hansen, Kasich’s chief of staff, and former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson of Reynoldsburg.
It is expected that top GOP staffers hired by DeWine, including Executive Director Darren Bearson and Communications Director Chris Maloney, will remain through the Nov. 6 election.
In his letter to the committee, DeWine, who has four school-aged sons at home in Fairborn, does not say whether he has a job lined up. He indicated that Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, asked him to raise money and remain involved “to make certain that Republican candidates, including our nominee for president, have the resources they need to be successful in November.”
DeWine, who will keep his position on the state central committee, will leave the state chairmanship with a record of never losing a race — except, ironically, his own. In 2010, Republicans won all five statewide executive offices, both houses of the General Assembly, and 6-1 control of the Ohio Supreme Court.
Shortly after his election in 2010, Kasich asked DeWine to resign. DeWine’s refusal — he was unanimously elected to a new term in January 2011 — caused a bitter fight for control of the central committee at the March GOP primary election. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent on ads and direct mail by Kasich and DeWine forces attacking each other’s candidates.
Allegations of inducements and intimidation by Kasich operatives to gather support of committee members to overthrow DeWine have abounded, punctuated by an affidavit by one member sent to the FBI and the prosecuting attorneys in three counties.
Kasich and his allies, including House Speaker William G. Batchelder, a Medina Republican, complained that DeWine was a divisive leader who showed favoritism to certain Republican candidates and elected officials and hostility to others.
DeWine and his allies countered that Kasich and lobbyist friends want their own chairman to make the party more Kasich-centric and to control the party’s resources.
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