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Stark County attorney Jane Murphy Timken is new head of the state GOP
By Marc Kovac
COLUMBUS
In what was viewed as a rebuke of Gov. John Kasich’s failure to support President-elected Donald Trump’s candidacy last year, members of the Ohio Republican Party’s state central committee named Stark County attorney Jane Murphy Timken as the new head of the state party.
She’s the first woman elected to to the post.
“I think that this is a historic moment,” she told reporters afterward. “But I think most importantly I’m the person that’s going to take this party to a new direction and have great success.”
The move came after two votes failed to garner enough support for either incumbent Chairman Matt Borges or his challenger and a closed-door meeting between Borges and Timken and their supporters.
In the end, Borges removed his name from consideration, and committee members, by a unanimous voice vote, named Murphy as chairwoman.
“I am grateful and humbled and honored to serve as your chairman of the Ohio Republican Party,” Timken said following the vote. “I know that this has been an arduous process, but I think this is the right path forward. I promise to be a good steward of the resources of the Ohio Republican Party.”
Borges will continue to have a role with the party, being named “chairman emeritus” during Friday’s meeting. He said specifics of that position have yet to be determined, though he would work to help Timken during the transition.
“I’m extraordinarily pleased about the effort for unity for the Republican Party,” he told reporters. “As I think you all know, the Republican Party is one of my passions and it’s something I love and care deeply about. And so the opportunity today to bring us closer together, to bring John Kasich and Donald Trump closer together and to make sure that we emerge from this process a united party moving forward was something that was extremely important to me.”
Sixty-five of 66 members of the state central committee were on hand for the secret-ballot vote.
The contest marked the aftermath of a messy 2016 election campaign, with Kasich declining to back Trump’s candidacy.
“In the weeks and two months prior to presidential election, [Borges] fell prey to uncertainty,” said Sarah Brown, an Alliance Republican and member of the state central committee, who backed Timken Friday. “And that is not the kind of leadership that a political leader must demonstrate. Fortunately, Mr. Trump carried this state. I think he could have probably carried by even more had the voice of leadership at the head of the Ohio Republican Party been stronger.”
Committee members received thousands of messages from supporters of both candidates – Republican Jim Dicke said he received 20 emails and 3,200-plus letters, many of which were form letters.
Some committee members reportedly received calls directly from Trump. Kasich told reporters earlier in the week that he made calls to members urging votes for Borges.
But Timken downplayed the Trump-Kasich battle, saying she had grassroots support for her candidacy.
“Look at the county party chairs who were overwhelmingly in support of me,” she said. “That is, I think, the unwritten story about this process. They were looking for a need for change in leadership. I think, quite frankly – I think they felt a little neglected and they want some change.”
The first two rounds of voting Friday did not result in the required 34 votes needed to win the chairmanship outright – Timken received 33 votes, while Borges received 32.