GOP chairman says he was pressured

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

A Republican Party chairman in a Northeast Ohio county alleges the governor’s allies offered him a say in gubernatorial appointments if he didn’t run for a position on the panel that elects state’s GOP chairman, a newspaper reported Friday.

Portage County GOP Chairman Andrew Manning told The Columbus Dispatch friends of Republican Gov. John Kasich relentlessly pressured him.

He told the newspaper he’s sent a notarized affidavit to the FBI, county prosecutors and the state inspector general asking them to investigate whether laws were broken.

“In my opinion, I felt it was unethical, and it crossed the line, but I don’t know about it being against the law,” Manning said.

Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said the governor would never permit anyone to do in his name what Manning alleges.

“That may be how it used to be done or how other folks do it, but it’s not how this governor works,” Nichols said. “No one authorized to represent the governor would do that.”

Kasich has made clear he wants the GOP central committee that governs the state party to replace Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine.

Manning has been on the 66-member committee since 2008 and ran to keep his position during Tuesday’s primary but said the re-election bid was undetermined and could require a recount. He said he had been asked not to run because it was perceived he supported DeWine.

He said he was told that if he withdrew from the race, he’d be designated “the governor’s guy” in the county and have influence over the selection of state appointees there, such as members of Kent State University boards.

“It wasn’t overt,” he said, “but this is pretty much how I understood it: If I was not to be a candidate, then I would get the governor’s support and help.”

Messages were left by The Associated Press on Friday at the county GOP office and at Manning’s number at the office.

DeWine declined to comment on the allegations, saying, “I’m fully focused on uniting this party to defeat Barack Obama in the fall.”