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In spite of great successes, unity eludes Trumbull Republicans

Despite a lack of unity, Republicans in Trumbull County are riding a historic wave of success.

Now the party is looking for stability and that may prove to be a bigger challenge than beating Democrats.

The disharmony was evident during Tuesday’s central committee meeting to choose its third leader in 30 months, not including two interim chairs.

The election was between Marleah Campbell, a powerful party insider who serves as its secretary, and Julia Shutt, who moved to the county four years ago and decided only the day before the vote to run for chair.

There are supposed to be 158 committee members – one for each precinct in the county – but the party has 86 members, meaning there are 72 vacant seats. That’s a 45.5% vacancy rate.

The party’s bylaws require only 28 members to make up a quorum, which likely harkens back to the days when Republicans were an afterthought in the once Democratic stronghold county. There were concerns before the meeting about getting a quorum.

But that didn’t materialize as 55 committee members attended Tuesday’s meeting.

One thing that really stood out was every person who spoke at the meeting addressed the lack of unity.

It started with Jim Dunlap, first vice chairman and the interim party chairman until the election.

Then it was Arno Hill, the party’s parliamentarian who nominated Campbell, followed by county Commissioner Denny Malloy, an outspoken critic of the party officers who nominated Dunlap.

The two chair candidates also addressed the topic.

Shutt said: “As an independent candidate with no involvement in the drama, I will focus on getting all candidates on the ballot, follow the bylaws and respect the office. Moving forward, my recipe for how do we do this is called ‘I don’t want drama and I’m not part of it and I don’t want it happening.'”

Campbell spent a portion of her speech addressing Malloy’s criticism of the party not giving money to Randy Law, clerk of court-elect, and Agostino Ragozzino, county treasurer-elect.

Taking what sounded like a shot at the division among Trumbull Republicans, Campbell said she attended a Republican executive committee meeting at a nearby county and “was amazed, sitting through their meeting, at the level of cooperation that they enjoy from their committee people. It was amazing. They truly understand the meaning of teamwork.”

The first ballot ended in a 27-27 tie forcing a second ballot with one person not voting. Unfortunately for Campbell, Allan Banner, a precinct committee member from Girard who supported her, left the meeting after the initial vote and despite being called to return, he didn’t get there in time for the second vote.

Again, one person didn’t vote, and the final tally was 27-26 for Shutt.

Shutt said she wants to unify the party.

“I’m like Switzerland,” she told me. “I don’t have a history of war on either side.”

Campbell said she would have won had more precinct committee members showed up. She also said some members in attendance Tuesday hadn’t been at a party function or meeting in two years.

Campbell said Shutt is a “good person. We’ve worked well together before. I’m anxious to see how she’s going to get that group to unify.”

The challenge is getting the two opposing factions, who have waged war for the past three years, to work together.

Despite Campbell’s intentions to move the party forward, it was virtually impossible for her to work well with the other faction that includes Malloy; Regina McManus, a political consultant; and their allies.

While that faction didn’t recruit Shutt, it threw its support behind her and was able to get enough of its precinct committee members to Tuesday’s meeting.

“I’m excited about the new leadership,” McManus said. “Julia can unite the party, and she’s up to it. We all want to unite the party.”

Malloy said Shutt is “the perfect person to lead us. Both sides will step in to help her.”

Left unsaid is can both sides work together.

Campbell had wanted to step away from Trumbull Republican politics at the end of this year. But with Mike Bollas resigning Nov. 8 as chairman, Campbell said she felt the need to run for chair to lead the party. Now that she lost, Campbell is unsure if she will remain party secretary.

Even with the infighting and arguing, Republicans haven’t been this strong in Trumbull since the New Deal during the 1930s, which helped Democrats gain and keep control of the county.

That control started slipping when Trumbull voted for Republican Donald Trump for president in 2016. Trump brought several former Democrats to the Republican Party.

With Trump winning Trumbull for a third consecutive presidential race and Republicans victorious in every contested race on the Nov. 5 county ballot, the transformation is virtually complete.

Starting next year, nine of the 11 executive branch seats will be held by Republicans. The party’s candidates for two contested judicial county seats on last month’s ballot also won.

Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.

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