Breaking: ORP Chair Kevin DeWine’s Proposal Passes by a One Vote Simple Majority

A related post is at the PJ Tatler.

Just heard this from BizzyBlog’s Rose.

I thought that the proposal required a two-thirds majority, but apparently not.

I am told that the arguments in favor of the proposal to exclude from State Central Committee membership anyonewho hasn’t voted in the past three statewide primaries (2008, 2010, and the upcoming 2012) – even if they win election on March 6 — were all about entrenched incumbent protection and keeping Tea Party supporters out, and not at all about preventing Democratic Party interlopers from somehow breaking in.

I’m also told that it was a secret ballot, which (as much as I like them in general) makes me rethink the idea’s applicability to SCC. After all, we vote them in, so it seems like we should know how they voted. Someone (I’m talking to you, past ORP head and now SCC member Bob Bennett in particular) could publicly say they were against Kevin DeWine’s proposal and then vote for it. Maybe we/someone needs to compile a list of members and how they say they voted, and see if it ties in. If it doesn’t, someone’s fibbing.

While I’m at it, in the spirit of Uncle Joe: Who counted the ballots?

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UPDATE: From the Plain Dealer, as of about 1 p.m. –

Ohio GOP committee gives Chairman Kevin DeWine a victory through rule change

The state Republican Central Committee voted 29-28 Friday to change the qualifications for being elected to the group.

The vote is a victory for state Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine and a rebuke to GOP Gov. John Kasich.

By a single vote, DeWine loyalists passed a rule that only candidates for GOP committee who voted in the last three Republican primaries would be eligible to sit on the committee.

Kasich’s supporters have recruited a slate of candidates to run against current committee members, a move viewed as an attempt to unseat DeWine as party chair.

There are thought to be as many as 12 Kasich-recruited members for the committee who would be disqualified under the new rule.

As to the Kasich “rebuke,” the fact that 28 SCC members were willing to stand up to Kevin DeWine’s clear campaign of arm-twisting and more — especially given that after 2010, the most optimistic view was that there were perhaps 15 true Tea Party sympathizers who won election (I estimated 21 potential folks in that group two years ago, but indicated that I was being optimistic) — says a lot about who’s being “rebuked.” This would suggest that somewhere between maybe eight and twelve supposed ORPINO reliables turned on Kevin.

Thanks, Kevin, you’ve officially made ORPINO (the Ohio Republican Party In Name Only) a national embarrassment.

Now the whisper campaign against challengers (“You’ll be wasting your vote, because they can’t be seated”) will proceed. Every time I think he can’t go any lower, Kevin DeWine and ORPINO find a new previously thought unreachable bottom.

UPDATE 2: Two other open questions –

• Was anything done, as Bytor at 3BP feared last night, to prevent the nine of 66 members who didn’t vote from getting the required phone number to attend the offsite meeting?
• Did the vote really require a majority only of those present, or did it really require a majority of all members?