Lawsuit against Ohio GOP dismissed
COLUMBUS — A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of Ohio Republican Party central committee members who had alleged financial mismanagementbystateparty leadership, including state GOP Chairman Bob Paduchik.
The lawsuit, filed in December by committee members Laura Rosenberger, Denise
Verdi, Joe Miller, Mark Bainbridge and Joann Campbell, had accused Paduchik and other state party officials of misreporting at least hundreds of thousands of expenditures. They also sought to force an audit of the party’s finances.
But in a written ruling this week, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Jaiza Page, a Democrat, rejected the committee members’ legal arguments, saying the state laws they cited governing conduct by nonprofit officials don’t apply to a state political party.
Page also found the committee members, who sought to file their lawsuit on behalf of all Ohio Republicans and donors to the state party, failed to demonstrate they had legal standing to make some of the claims they tried to make.
State political parties are run by 66 elected committee members who represent districts that mirror state legislative districts. Those committee members effectively hire party leaders. The group of five committee members who sued the state party also have sought to make other changes, including unsuccessfully trying to prevent the party from endorsing Gov. Mike Dewine in the May Republican primary.
In a statement reacting to Page’s ruling, Paduchik called the committee members’ claims a “frivolous lawsuit.”
“The five committee members that filed this suit have disgraced themselves by placing their personal political agendas above the party’s mission to elect Republicans to office,” Paduchik said. “With the 2022 election cycle in full swing, this meaningless distraction has come to a conclusion to the benefit of Republicans across Ohio.”
In an interview, Scott Pullins, a lawyer for the committee members, said he plans to appeal the judge’s decision to the state’s 10th District appellate court.
“I think the law hasn’t caught up yet to what political parties are today,” Pullins said. “Really, the case law she relied upon took place back when political parties were much smaller organizations.”