DEAR EDITOR:

After winning their elections for Trumbull County commissioner and auditor, Denny Malloy and Martha Yoder complained to your reporter in the Nov. 11 article titled “Color the Valley Deeper Red” that they got no help in their campaigns from the county Republican Party or its officers, knowing this beef would make the newspaper.

Malloy claimed none of the officers attended any of his or Martha’s fundraisers, which is not true; I bought a ticket for Martha’s fundraiser at Ciminero’s in Niles in February, attended it and spent more money while I was there. Denny knows this because he poured my drink at the bar. The truth is Malloy and Yoder have been divisive and self-centered in our party the past year or so, which mostly explains why they didn’t get as much support as they might have.

Here’s the rest of the story: After losing the election for county chairman at our quadrennial reorganization meeting in June, Martha and her supporters went to the back of the room pacing back and forth, talking loudly, throughout the rest of the meeting and being disruptive like insolent children who didn’t get their way. During the same meeting Malloy and former chairman Kevin Wyndham were disruptive and hostile toward then-Chairman Ken Kline, who was trying to lead the meeting. They have their own little faction, purposely at odds with the current and duly elected party officers. When the whiners talk about lack of unity and loyalty in our party, they should first look in the mirror. The fact that they made those remarks to the media instead of taking it up with members of the Trumbull GOP privately demonstrates disloyalty by itself.

We held our annual Lincoln Day Dinner last spring that Malloy did not attend, and neither he nor Martha Yoder attended our annual Reagan Barbecue, a party fundraiser, at Bronzewood in Kinsman in September. It’s a wonderful event that raised much money for GOP candidates and the party. Furthermore, we did, in fact, support Nick Santucci for state representative enthusiastically.

I normally believe we shouldn’t air our dirty laundry in public, but since they decided to go there, I figured somebody should clear up their “misstatements.”

I am speaking for myself and not for the Trumbull County Republican Party.

JAMES DUNLAP

Mineral Ridge