After Ultimatum, Geauga GOP Chair Announces Resignation

August 25, 2024 by Amy Patterson

*** Editor’s note: This article has been updated from our original story with Geauga GOP Chair Nancy McArthur’s recent letter announcing her impending resignation (and to reflect a correction made to her reasons for resigning), as well as updated statements from GOP Vice Chair Kevin O’Reilly and Geauga County Board of Health member Carolyn Brakey. ***

Geauga County Republican Party Chair Nancy McArthur signaled her intention to resign at 11:59 p.m. Sept. 6 from a post she has held for more than a decade, citing personal reasons.

“Several weeks ago, due to personal reasons, I decided to resign, soon, as your party chairman and informed our current party officers of my intentions,” she said.

Her decision comes less than a week after a group of Geauga County elected officials gave McArthur an ultimatum Aug. 14, telling her to resign or face a special meeting of the central committee convened to remove her.

The letter was signed by U.S. Congressman David Joyce, as well as 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.

Several signatories told the Geauga County Maple Leaf they were 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.

In her Aug. 19 resignation letter, a defiant McArthur said her decision to step down had nothing to do with a loss of confidence in her leadership.

“The timing of my decision to resign has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the letter released last week by Chuck Walder and Jim Flaiz,” McArthur wrote. “They contrived a public campaign for my resignation, even after having been informed of my imminent departure. This was an act of revenge in retaliation for holding them answerable to the party. It is also an attempt to take over and control the party’s leadership, legal authority and purse strings. Republican party leaders and committee members must hold their elected officials accountable, not the other way around.”

‘Failure in Leadership’

In their Aug. 14 letter, officials said the party’s meetings have, for the past several years, been

contentious and unproductive.

“This has resulted in us losing our meeting space, lawsuits and many party members not wanting to attend party meetings and events,” they told McArthur. “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,” they told McArthur. “This is an unprecedented failure in leadership.”

Another point of contention officials raised 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.”

McArthur Claps Back

But in her letter, McArthur touted her successes in recent years.

“Under my leadership, we have not lost any county-wide Republican seats, in fact, few local Democratic candidates have even run for office,” she said. “In the last several general election cycles, Geauga County was number two or three in the entire state for percentage of voter turnout. I built and still maintain meaningful relationships with Republicans all over Ohio.”

McArthur accused the officials of retribution in an earlier statement, released Aug. 15, saying their complaints came only 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.

In that statement, McArthur again said Walder and Flaiz were behind the demand for her resignation, along with five other committee members who supported Trapp’s campaign.

“This letter is nothing more than an attempt to distract and confuse the voters,” she said Aug. 15. “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 Aug. 15. “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.”

O’Reilly to Step In

Immediately upon McArthur’s resignation Sept. 6, Vice Chair Kevin O’Reilly will step into the role as acting chair automatically, she said in her Aug. 19 letter.

“Be assured that the Geauga County Republican Party is in capable hands and together, we will proceed with plans to win Republican races up and down the ballot. For the good of the party and our Republican candidates, I urge that you put aside any differences we may have had in the past and unite today for the sake of our county, our state and our country.”

O’Reilly had come to McArthur’s defense last week, telling the Maple Leaf the Aug. 14 letter demanding her resignation was 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.”

On Aug. 20, O’Reilly issued a letter to committee members confirming that, per the party’s bylaws, he will become interim chair Sept. 7.

“I have already been in contact with our secretary and treasurer, and we will be scheduling a meeting in September to address the election of a permanent chair for the remainder of the term,” he said. “In the meantime, it is critically important that we, as a group, work to get ALL our Republican candidates elected this November.”

Lennon, Brakey Call for Unity

One elected official who did not sign the Aug. 14 letter was outgoing 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 said last week.

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.”

Carolyn Brakey, previously president of the Geauga County Board of Health and 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.

Upon news of McArthur’s impending resignation, Brakey released a follow-up statement Aug. 20 thanking her for her years of service.

“Nancy McArthur’s leadership and tireless work ethic over the past 12 years have been instrumental in achieving (the GOP’s mission) and I thank her for her dedicated service to our party,” Brakey said. “Although she informed me and others weeks ago of her intention to resign, I appreciate her commitment to continue working through the all-important (Great) Geauga County Fair.”

Brakey said she looks forward to working with O’Reilly and all members of the party to ensure a smooth transition and continue the party’s mission.

“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 said in her Aug. 14 statement. “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.”