There are some interesting developments in recent days coming out of Columbus regarding how the Ohio Republican Party is handling the ongoing dispute over the leadership of the Lucas County GOP.

While it appears on its surface that state party chairman Kevin DeWine and the Ohio GOP Central Committee will let the situation sort itself out following the May primary, there are some undercurrents that suggest those same political leaders have decided Jon Stainbrook is good enough for the locals, but they want no part of him at the state level.

Consider these two situations:

A Toledo Blade editorial indicates the state central committee quietly decided last week to keep Stainbrook in charge of the day-to-day operations of the county Republican party—at least through the May primary election. In other words, stick the word interim before the phrase “party chairman”— much like most of the department heads who worked for former mayor Carty Finkbeiner. The Blade editorial also states that plan calls for a “neutral party leader” to oversee the reorganization meeting that will determine a GOP chairman in the contest between Stainbrook and local attorney Jeff Simpson. That “meeting mediator” must be acceptable to both sides of this battle.

However, recent political mailings show the Ohio Republican Party officially is endorsing Jonathan Binkley in a bid to retain his state central committee seat. Stainbrook is running against him, but apparently isn’t receiving any official support from state party leaders, who also paid for at least one recent mailing for Binkley.

This is hardly Mr. DeWine telling the local A and B-teamers to hold hands and sing Kum Ba Ya.

Rather, this is Ohio GOP leaders telling Lucas County Republicans that they’ll deal with whoever ends up winning the showdown at sundown. But they certainly don’t want Stainbrook crashing the party in Columbus, making decisions that could affect crucial statewide races.

Stainbrook and Simpson will gather whichever supporters win precinct committee races May 4, then blow through the doors of the OK Corral, each with their gang in tow for an early summer reorganizational confab.

In the interim, Mr. DeWine and Co. will quietly back Binkley for the state central committee— someone they know and trust to make well-reasoned and thoughtful decisions, and who won’t bring the silliness and circus atmosphere of Toledo politics raining down on the state capital.

So the message to Mr. Stainbrook is: “We love ya, pal. Seriously. Really, we do. But only to a point. Keep working those phones for our slate of candidates, but don’t hop in the car to come see us anytime soon.”

Jonathan Binkley's Cenrtal Committee Mailing -

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Chris Myers

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Chris is the political, technology, contributor and general site cat herder. He works as a Web designer, has run for office before and runs many sites, including SwampBubbles.