Geauga GOP Chair Told Resign or Be Ousted 

August 16, 2024 by Amy Patterson

Geauga County elected officials have given Geauga County Republican Party Chair Nancy McArthur an ultimatum: resign or a special meeting of the central committee will be convened to remove her.

McArthur’s resignation was demanded in an Aug. 14 letter signed by Geauga County commissioners Ralph Spidalieri and Jim Dvorak, Auditor Chuck Walder, Sheriff Scott Hildenbrand, Prosecutor Jim Flaiz, Treasurer Chris Hitchcock, Recorder Celesta Mullins, Clerk of Courts Sheila Bevington and Engineer Joe Cattell, as well as U.S. Congressman David Joyce.

“For the past several years, our meetings have been extremely contentious and unproductive,” the letter said. “This has resulted in us losing our meeting space, lawsuits and many party members not wanting to attend party meetings and events. You have been at the center of litigation that has drained the funds available to the party and the toxic environment that you have created has driven away members and donations. In fact, several elected officials have stopped or reduced donations to the Geauga GOP in recent years.”

The officials noted for the first time in their memory, the Geauga County GOP does not have and will not have a location for its headquarters, at a time the county is approaching a critical national and state election. 

“In one of the most reliably Republican counties in Ohio, we will not have any physical space to use as a base of operations. This is an unprecedented failure in leadership,” they told McArthur.

Another point of contention was McArthur’s choice to run twice against her own party’s incumbent county commissioner — she ran two primary campaigns against Ralph Spidalieri in 2016 and 2024. In their letter, the officials said those races “caused deep divisions.”

A defiant McArthur responded to the letter, accusing the officials of retribution after they were rebuked for their support of Mary Jane Trapp, a Democrat running against Republican Matt Rambo in the non-partisan race for a seat on the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas.

“This letter was orchestrated primarily by two people: Chuck Walder and Jim Flaiz who, along with five other Republican Committee members, are supporting a Democrat nominee for judge,” McArthur clapped back. “This letter is nothing more than an attempt to distract and confuse the voters. Their actions could be considered a form of election interference as these individuals want to take over leadership to control our party, our finances and our actions right before a major presidential election.”

McArthur said seven individuals who currently serve on the party’s central and executive committees, including four who authored the letter asking her to resign, were recently “put on notice” by the GOP for violating party bylaws and their committee oaths in their support for Trapp.

Those she named include Flaiz, Walder, Hitchcock, Dvorak, attorney Dennis Coyne, candidate for county engineer Andy Haupt and Frank Antenucci, chief deputy administrator of the county Department of Information Technology.

Their primary goal, McArthur said, is to stop the party from supporting Rambo, who was formally endorsed at an executive committee meeting held July 25. None of the seven individuals who were “put on notice” appeared at that meeting, where she said the letter naming them was read aloud.

“The Central Committee will be addressing this attack on me and our party in the very near future,” McArthur wrote. “If the committee members decide they want new leadership, it is up to us as members to decide that together, not disgruntled elected officials, most of whom do not serve on our Central Committee.”

Kevin O’Reilly, vice chairman of the central committee, came to McArthur’s defense, telling the Maple Leaf the Aug. 14 letter is purely retaliation for her doing her job.

“The issues stated in the letter are secondary to the true reason they are asking for her resignation and have been festering in the committee for years, never rising to the level of resignation,” O’Reilly said.

He said the individuals McArthur named were asked to meet in confidence with him, McArthur and central committee member Timothy Snyder “to talk about their blatant disregard for the oath they took and the impression that it will give to the Republican voters in Geauga County,” but the individuals “became verbally combative” and did not agree they had violated their oaths.

“Their argument that the judge’s race on the November ballot is non-partisan is to ignore the fact that Mary Jane Trapp is a registered Democrat whom one can safely assume holds values that align with the Democrat party,” O’Reilly said. “None of this is intended to address whether Mary Jane Trapp is the most qualified candidate, but simply to hold members of the Republican Committee to the oath they swore to uphold.”

Karen Swan, former vice chairman of the executive committee, did not respond to several calls requesting comment. Swan abruptly resigned as vice chairman after the July 25 executive committee meeting.

One elected official who did not sign the Aug. 14 letter was county Commissioner Tim Lennon.

“Before I pass judgment, and follow the Pied Piper out of town, I think the central committee members need to hear from the party chair, as to what the catalyst for the sudden request to resign is all about and answer to the claims being made against her,” Lennon told the Geauga County Maple Leaf.

The committee also should hear from each GOP official who publicly and financially decided to support Trapp, he added.

“It seems to me that before any decisions in future leadership are made, or to demand the chair resign, it is the central committee — and the central committee members alone — that will make the decision of any changes in leadership, if necessary,” said Lennon. “If the members would like to consider another leader, then so be it.”

All central and executive committee members have sworn an oath to support Republican candidates, not to publicly or financially support Democrats, Lennon said.

“Those that are involved in doing so owe the Geauga County Central Committee and Geauga County Republican voters an explanation,” he said. “At the end of the day, the party needs to stick together supporting strong conservative leadership for Geauga County and also hold those that are undermining the party accountable for their actions, as well.”

Geauga County Board of Health President Carolyn Brakey, who is also the Republican nominee for county commissioner in the Nov. 5 general election, echoed Lennon’s call for unity in an Aug. 14 statement.

The GOP’s mission is to support Republican candidates and ensure their election, said Brakey.

“With less than three months before a crucial presidential election, it is vital that all members of the Geauga GOP remain focused on this mission,” she said in the statement.

“I urge all Geauga GOP stakeholders to work in good faith and strictly within the bylaws of our organization. We must ensure legitimacy and fully support our Republican candidates from now through November,” she added. “The stakes in this upcoming election are too high for internal discord to divert us from our shared goals. Our priority must be unity and effective leadership within the party to secure Republican victories in Geauga County.”

Several signatories to the Aug. 14 letter told the Geauga County Maple Leaf they are prepared to circulate a petition among central committee members calling for a special meeting for the purpose of ousting McArthur. There are 78 seats on the central committee, one seat for every voting precinct in the county.

According to the rules and bylaws of the central and executive committees, a special meeting can be called by written petition of at least one-fourth of central committee members, specifying the purpose of such meeting and directed to the county chair and/or secretary. The petitions must be presented to the secretary no later than 14 days prior to the meeting date and the business of the special meeting is limited to the subject of the petition. 

A quorum is constituted at any special meeting if at least 25% of the central committee members are present. At any meeting at which a quorum is present, all matters are determined by majority vote. No vote by proxy, delegation or mailed-in ballots are recognized.

McArthur confirmed it is the central committee that determines whether to call a special meeting.

“We will address whatever is needed in our own time,” she said.

When asked whether the committee should vote on the issues raised by the officials who signed the letter, she said no.

“The issues they ‘raised’ are non-issues,” McArthur said. “The real issue is them.