The Ohio Republican Party’s central committee ended its meeting early on Friday after demonstrators opposed to Gov. Mike DeWine refused to leave the room. (Jeremy Pelzer, cleveland.com)
LEWIS CENTER, Ohio — An Ohio Republican Party Central Committee meeting ended abruptly Friday after raucous opponents of Gov. Mike DeWine in the audience refused to leave even after party officials brought in sheriff’s deputies.
The decision to adjourn the meeting because of heckling and interruptions from the audience came after Ohio GOP Chair Bob Paduchik and other state party leaders themselves engaged in an often-heated debate with several committee members over party contributions given to DeWine’s re-election campaign.
The boisterous meeting is the latest illustration of how divisive DeWine, a Greene County Republican, has become among Ohio conservatives. DeWine has built strong Republican connections during his 40-plus years in politics, but there has been growing discontent on the farther right — both within the state GOP and among activists — about many of his actions in office, such as stay-at-home and business closure orders issued in the early weeks of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Ex-U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci and Columbus-area farmer Joe Blystone are challenging DeWine in next year’s primary, though DeWine has significantly more money and name recognition than either challenger.
The state GOP’s central committeewas unusually contentious from the start. Debates broke out on usually mundane agenda items such as approving the minutes of the previous meeting and the treasurer’s report.
Friday’s meeting agenda included five proposed resolutions — an “unprecedented” number, Paduchik said — that sought to, among other things, demand the return of nearly $900,000 the state GOP gave DeWine’s campaign in cash and in-kind contributions.
Another resolution sought to expand an audit of party finances, ordered after Paduchik announced a roughly $640,000 accounting error, which involved past party contributions to former Rep. Steve Stivers. The effort to expand the audit to include the years 2017 and 2018 has a political significance, as Jane Timken — now a candidate for U.S. Senate — was state party chair at the time.
The sponsor of that resolution, committee member Mark Bainbridge, criticized state party treasurer Dave Johnson about party finances, leading Johnson to reply, “I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.”
Both those resolutions and a third attempting to reverse Paduchik’s reorganization of standing committee members were tabled.
As the debate among committee members began, demonstrators in the audience, crowded together in the back of a room at a conference center in suburban Columbus, began to jeer Paduchik and supporters, leading Paduchik to issue multiple warnings to them to quiet down.
After the vote on the third resolution, committee member LeeAnn Johnson said the audience was harassing committee members and trying to participate in voice votes. That led the central committee to adjourn and Paduchik to order everyone to leave the room except committee members and credentialed media.
When some audience members remained in the room after several minutes, the committee voted to end the meeting. Sheriff’s deputies entered the room, though a reporter didn’t see the deputies attempting to forcibly remove anyone from the premises.
The demonstrators came from a number of other places around Ohio, representing a variety of groups. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Mark Pukita urged supporters on social media to attend the meeting.
Christine Gingerich, a member of a Canton-based group called “We The People,” said she came to the meeting because she heard — inaccurately, as it turned out — that the central committee might vote to endorse DeWine for re-election. Charlotte Chipps of Morrow County, who’s helping Blystone’s campaign, said she attended for the same reason.
The state GOP central committee will meet next on Feb. 4, 2022, said party spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin. It remains to be seen whether the committee will take up the two resolutions it didn’t get to on Friday, both of which seek to reduce the number of central committee members eligible to vote on endorsing DeWine in the 2022 GOP primary.
One of the resolutions would force the 15 central committee members who work for the DeWine administration or were appointed by the governor to a board or commission to recuse themselves from any vote on endorsing DeWine in the primary.
The second would go even farther and prevent any central committee members from voting on endorsements, resolutions, or financial support for any elected official if they or any members of their immediate family either work for the candidate or are a registered lobbyist.
Votes on vaccine mandates and drafting women for military service now are unlikely to happen
Marco Rubio’s insistence on a vote on his amendment targeting slave labor in China could cost his GOP colleagues votes on their proposals. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
With his colleagues ready to proceed, Florida Republican Marco Rubio scuttled floor consideration of the Senate’s version of the annual defense policy bill this week, costing his own party a chance to get Democrats on the record on key priorities.
The bill’s managers had struck a deal to hold 24 amendment votes, on topics ranging from vaccine mandates to a proposed requirement that women register for the draft.
But because Rubio refused to budge on his demand for a vote on his proposal to bar importation of Chinese goods made by the slave labor of Uyghurs and others, it now appears negotiators will forge a compromise version of the National Defense Authorization Act and present it for votes in the House and Senate.
Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., said he couldn’t allow a vote on Rubio’s amendment because the House Ways and Means Committee planned to protest it as a violation of the Constitution’s rule that revenue-generating measures originate in the House — never mind that the Congressional Budget Office has found the revenue insignificant.
Speaking on the Senate floor, Rubio said the House’s interpretation of generating revenue was so broad it could be applied to almost anything, fairly or not.
“They wield this blue slip thing to mean whatever they want it to mean,” he said, noting that his amendment had already passed the Senate as a standalone bill, and would pass the House too if House leaders would bring it to a vote.
But there was no indication House leaders planned to do so, and on Thursday evening, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer, D-Md., said he expected a House vote next week on the new version of the NDAA.
With a 60-year streak of enacting the defense authorization into law on the line, leaders are eager to pass the bill by any legislative avenue necessary.
“It’s unfortunate that this misguided demand of a single Republican senator is preventing this important legislation to support our national security from moving in the Senate,” Schumer said during a floor speech on Wednesday. He pointed out that the lineup of amendment votes he’d proposed had the backing of both Armed Services Chairman Jack Reed, D-R.I., and ranking member James M. Inhofe, R-Okla.
Messaging opportunities lost
In addition to forcing a legislative workaround, Rubio’s intransigence has likely cost several of his GOP colleagues roll call votes on their amendments. Roll call votes, especially on high-profile issues, are not just a way of tallying whether an amendment is adopted, but can serve as an important messaging vehicle as senators’ positions are put on the record individually.
Sometimes, the political messaging is the point.
For example, Oklahoma Republican James Lankford had received a pledge from Schumer to hold a vote on his amendment to require completion of all portions of the border wall started during the Trump administration that were halted once President Joe Biden took office.
Roger Marshall, R-Kan., and a handful of other Republicans, were slated to get a vote on their amendment to block the Defense Department from dishonorably discharging any servicemember who refused to obey the Pentagon’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate.
Another amendment, spearheaded by Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho, the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, would impose sanctions against executives of the Russian company building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, as well as its financers, denying them entry to the United States and blocking use of their funds in the United States. Risch argues that Russia is using access to its natural gas to coerce its European neighbors.
Biden has already waived these sanctions, so Democrats would face the prospect of opposing the leader of their party or appearing weak on Russia.
And Josh Hawley, R-Mo., thought he’d secured a vote for his amendment to strip from the bill a provision requiring women to register for the Selective Service, a priority of social conservatives.
It won’t be just Republicans who will miss out on offering amendments.
For example, Vermont independent Bernie Sanders expected a vote on his amendment to strip out a $25 billion increase to the Defense Department’s topline. This amendment was likely to fail, since the increase already has the support of every member of the Armed Services Committee except for Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren. Nonetheless, it is important to progressives to make clear their opposition to the size of the Pentagon’s budget.
All told, two dozen amendments — not all of them controversial — won’t receive votes if the Senate gives up on passing its own version of the NDAA.
Some of these proposals could still make it into the final bill, if the lawmakers negotiating the compromise bill sign off, but not if their inclusion puts the bill’s ultimate passage in question.
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