More on trouble in paradise

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http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/ohio-house-speaker-blasts-state-gop-chairman-1293759.html


Updated 6:56 PM Saturday, December 3, 2011
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A schism in Ohio's Republican Party is growing, amid a weekend exchange between the party's chairman and the GOP speaker of the state House in which both accuse the other of not having the party's best interests at heart.
In a memo Friday night to the House GOP caucus, Speaker William Batchelder wrote that Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine exhibited "questionable leadership tactics and poor decision making." The memo was first obtained by The Columbus Dispatch.
The memo came after a meeting Friday of the state GOP's Central Committee where DeWine said Gov. John Kasich was "aggressively recruiting candidates" to run against many of the committee's incumbents. The 66-member committee unanimously elected DeWine party chairman in 2009.
Kasich's antipathy toward DeWine is no secret — after defeating then-Gov. Ted Strickland in 2010, Kasich asked DeWine to step down as party chairman. Kasich again snubbed DeWine this summer by skipping the party's annual state dinner in Cleveland.
In his memo, Batchelder writes that he had been reluctant to publicly discuss frustrations about state party operations. He concludes that "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."
In the memo, Batchelder accuses DeWine of:
— Refusing to lend party resources to incumbent House members who were opposed in primary elections
— Refusing House Republicans access to state party equipment
— Discouraging donors from contributing to House Republicans
— Refusing to allow House Republicans to participate in leadership meetings and conference calls.