WARREN — Central committee members of the Trumbull County Republican Party voted overwhelmingly to strike down potential changes to party bylaws at a meeting Saturday morning.

The GOP met at the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library to consider changes to endorsement privileges, sanctioning and annual dues.

First Vice Chair Jim Dunlap explained that the rejection was passed in exchange for a motion to not accept any bylaw changes presently, expand the size of the bylaws committee and revisit the idea to better understand what changes could be considered “good and necessary.”

These re-assessed changes would be presented at the next central committee meeting, and would be representative of a larger bylaw committee of eight to 10 people, which is about double the current board, Dunlap explained.

“Part of the reason he (Bob Tucker) introduced that motion with the bylaws is because there were so many of them,” Dunlap said. “Everybody didn’t have a chance to fully digest it all, and it was just too much, too soon. The motion passed by a wide margin, and so none were made, or even considered, today.”

Dunlap said that if the committee does grow, it then will decide on what bylaws may change, as well as what changes members would recommend be brought before the Central Committee at a later meeting.

IF BYLAWS CHANGED

Regarding endorsements, the proposal would have the central committee meet no more than 30 days after the filing deadline to decide on an endorsement or denouncement of any candidate or issue.

The 30 days is “encouraged,” according to the proposed language “for such endorsements to be of maximum value.” At least two-thirds of the members present at a meeting would have to vote on issuing an endorsement or denouncement.

If the central committee doesn’t meet 30 days after the filing deadline, the executive committee could meet for endorsements and / or denouncements under the proposal.

With Dec. 20 being the filing deadline for the March 19 election, the 30 days for the central committee to endorse has passed.

The party could endorse next year, even in nonpartisan elections such as township trustee, Trumbull County GOP Chairman Mike Bollas said.

As for the annual dues, payments of $25 would have to be made by Feb. 1 of each year, according to the proposal, with the failure “at minimum” resulting “in a suspension of the delinquent member’s voting rights.”

The duration of that suspension, and any other consequences of that delinquency, if any, “shall be determined by a majority vote of the executive committee.”

The proposed changes also wouldn’t permit members of the central committee to “make any public statement or take any action to support a local, county, state or national candidate who is not a Republican.”

“Central committee members shall refrain from making any public written or oral statement about any other member of the Republican Party or candidate of the party.”

The changes include sanctioning those who back non-Republicans in partisan races — up to expulsion by a two-thirds vote of the central committee — and the elimination of the auxiliary chair position, which is held by Trumbull County Commissioner Niki Frenchko, who was censured in October by party officers and banned from party headquarters.

PUSHBACK

In a joint statement issued earlier this month, Trumbull County Commissioner Denny Malloy; Auditor Martha Yoder; Randy Law, the party’s state central committeeman, a former county party chairman and a clerk of courts candidate; David Engler, a candidate for domestic / juvenile court judge; Kevin Wyndham, a former county party chairman; Regina McManus, a Republican consultant; and three former party officers wrote:

“We believe these changes are not necessary, antiquated, restrictive and push people away from joining the Republican Party.”

It adds: “These changes are meant to take power from the duly elected central committee members who are representatives of the precinct voters and put it in the hands of an appointed executive board, which is made up of more than a dozen nonelected members. We want to move forward in Trumbull County as a party, not backwards.”

Frenchko said separately, “It’s not a real party.” She added, “It’s an embarrassment.”

Former Trumbull County GOP Chairman and former state Rep. Randy Law said “shooting down” the “poorly advised” bylaw changes was the right thing to do.

“I think pretty much everybody was in agreement with that,” Law said. “It was a poor attempt at trying to take control of the party with a small group. The party made, today, a good decision there.”

“They were trying to change the bylaws so they could endorse their preferred candidates,” Frenchko said. “It didn’t go over well.”

“They don’t have the authority to make a decision like that without the entire body,” she said.

Another motion was made later in the meeting by Frenchko, to strike down all of the actions taken by officers on behalf of the Trumbull County GOP since August 2023.

Frenchko later said she made the motion because the actions did not represent the position of the party, and were intended to target candidates.

“With that, it does remove any type of censure that the five people made, because it wasn’t real,” Frenchko said. “Five people decided that, on behalf of all of the Republicans in Trumbull County, and it did not reflect them.”

The local Republican Party, Frenchko said, makes a huge effort to control the speech of candidates.

“And that should never be in a political party,” she said.

The party’s officers censured Frenchko on Oct. 25 “as a result of her ongoing behavior and actions which have been destructive in nature and have adversely affected the Republican Party, its members, officers and candidates.”

The motion, passed, 24 to 14, not only removes the censure of Frenchko, but also reverses action taken against other members.

Malloy said the committee had not followed procedure in notifying party members of the changes, and the committee admitted that they had not mailed the notification, but emailed it.

“If they were to vote them through today, it would have been illegal anyway,” Malloy said. “I was glad to see that the crowd there stood up for their rights, and stood up for the bylaws, because we need to follow the rules.”

Malloy continued, “If we don’t have rules in our party, then we don’t have a party.”

Committee secretary Marleah Campbell and Bollas were said by multiple Trumbull County GOP members to have put together plans to change the bylaws. Campbell and Bollas could not be reached for comment after Saturday’s meeting.

“Regardless of your personal relationships, or whether you like or dislike someone, you still have to follow the rules,” Malloy said.

“By rejecting these proposals, I think we’re on our way to taking the party back and doing the right thing all of the time,” Malloy said. “If they would have changed the bylaws, they would have put a lockgate up to keep people out, which would have kept the power with a few people. We need to open our umbrellas, and we need to let people in.”