Vandemark voted in as Chairman of the MC Republican Party
Tuesday night, the Marshall County Republican Headquarters was filled with 38 Precinct Committeemen and Vice Precinct Committeemen as well as other members of the Republican Party. The reason for the gathering was to vote on who would fill the position of Republican Chairman. The previous chairman, David Holmes, passed away on June 20.
“Before we start, let us take a moment to remember why we are here this evening. Dave Holmes touched each one of us in a different way. He may have appointed you, voted for you, guided you in your careers, or might have had a conversation with you that you will always remember. He loved the Republican Party, and he will always be remembered,” said Vice Chairman Deb Vandemark.
Candidates Sean Surrisi and Deb Vandemark were given five minutes each to speak.
Surrisi spoke first, beginning by highlighting his career as an attorney and mentioning that he was appointed by Holmes to the Marshall County Election Board. He then detailed some of his ideas about the direction of the Republican Party.
He admitted that he wasn’t a life-long Republican. He and his wife spent around three years trying to be in the Democratic Party. Sometime in 2010, they reached out to Holmes, and they joined the Republican Party.
“Recently we’ve had some energetic new county candidates that have won hotly contested primaries. and there’s a lot of you and a lot of people out there that aren’t happy about that. and all I can say is that if you look at the precinct election reports that the majority of voters you represent in these precincts wanted these people to win their elections. and they did. and we’ve got some people that still are dissatisfied by that, and they’ve gone out and recruited Democrats to run against our candidates. I feel that if we don’t listen to the voters, we do it at our peril,” Surrisi said. “and one of those officials that has been causing trouble recently is Commissioner Kevin Overmyer.”
Surrisi displayed for the audience a screenshot of a text message sent by Overmyer (the contact was listed as Kevin Overmyer in the screenshot) to Surrisi. It had been sent at 6:59 p.m. on a Monday. The message was included in a group chat of five total people. The text message read: “Sean I’m not supporting u for chairman. What’s ur end game here? Tim paying for all your mailings? are you a member of we the people group. If I said anything to you that day it was in jest. Quit saying I’m supporting you because I don’t. They have destroyed the party! and you can’t fix it”.
In that screenshot, Surrisi had replied: “I’m in the city council meeting right now. When I get out I’ll prepare a response to this text so the folks who are are on here that I don’t know who they are can hear my answers to your questions. Beyond that I’d be happy to talk with you directly.”
Surrisi stated that the message had been sent to him the week prior and that Vandemark was a recipient of the message. It should be noted that the screenshot did not include any messages from Vandemark, nor did it identify her.
“and I think that those are the same people, that supposedly destroyed the party, are the people that your voters voted into office, and we need to respect that,” Surrisi said.
He then showed an image of a Democratic candidate for County Council. Surrisi told the audience that the candidate told Surrisi and Mayor Mark Senter that “Kevin Overmyer recruited him
to run for council.”
“I’ve heard people that say that Deb doesn’t condone the support of Democrats, but yet she’s had Kevin out making calls for her and he’s the top person on the endorsement list for her. And, you know, looking the other way at things like this isn’t leadership. You have to speak up to be a leader and all the evidence we’ve seen is that she’s maybe not up to the task to take on these sticky problems that we find ourselves in right now.”
He finished by stating what he’d like to see happen including revamping the headquarters, recruit candidates, perform candidate training to avoid problems, and to not forget the party’s principles.
It was time for Vandemark to speak. She began by introducing herself and that she’s served the Republican Party for 16 years with her “heart and soul” as well as her time in elected positions and serving as Vice Chairman of the Party.
She then addressed Surrisi’s claims regarding Overmyer. “What you do need to know, Kevin Overmyer is not running for County Chair. I am running for County Chair to finish out Dave Holmes term. I will not allow others to define who I am. I will not allow Kevin to define who I am tonight. Let’s get that out in the open from the start. I’m a lifelong Republican. I have never been a Democrat. I have not switched political parties once I found out this county elects Republicans.”
She then went on to say that she hopes that everyone knows that she continues to work for the Republican Party. With her term as County Clerk expiring at the end of this year, Vandemark stated that her career plans are still unknown, but she has a few possible opportunities that she has to think about. She also stated that she’ll have plenty of work in the Clerk’s Office including a November election.
She stated that the last 30 days, the campaign for this position has become “ugly.”
“During this campaign, I have heard the rumor mill say that I have been Kevin’s puppet. For clarity, I am not anyone’s puppet. You could probably ask Kevin that. I don’t go to dinner with Kevin. I don’t vacation with him, and I don’t visit in his home. However, I do work with Kevin as an elected official, and we do have conversations.”
Vandemark told the audience that she and Dave Holmes didn’t recruit candidates to run against incumbents. “However, this past primary, others did go after incumbent Republicans. Perhaps this was an attempt to purposely cause division to split our party. It certainly does seem to have had that result.”
She stated that as the party chair, she would work for and support all Republican candidates for success in keeping Republican offices.
Finishing, Vandemark
stated that she would like to hold candidate meetings, organize pictures for advertisement and get prepared for the Fall election. “There is much work to be done and we need to work together to get the job done.”
After both candidates were finished speaking, the Precinct Committeemen were excused by seated row to cast their ballot. The election results were 13 votes for Surrisi and 25 votes for Vandemark.
Vandemark thanked those that voted for her. “We’re going to work hard; we’re going to keep Republicans in office.”
She also announced that that Jim Masterson would be her Vice Chairman. Vandemark will serve as the chairman through March 2025.