Free Republic

By: Justin Boggs items.[0].image.alt Candice Keller, a Republican member of the Ohio House of Representatives, made controversial comments on Sunday following a pair of mass shootings, including one near her home district. Keller's comments were published on Facebook on Sunday and have since been deleted, but not before a number of people made screen grabs of the comments and shared them on social media. "She wrote, "The breakdown of the traditional American family (thank you, transgender, homosexual marriage, and drag queen advocates); fatherlessness, a subject no one discusses or believes is relevant; the ignoring of violent video games; the relaxing...

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Donald Trump finally exacted revenge. On Friday, the president-elect settled scores with John Kasich and the Ohio governor's Republican machine. The first political casualty: Ohio GOP Chairman Matt Borges. Borges, a key Kasich ally, lost the top job after a series of dramatically deadlocked votes by the state party's Central Committee. Taking his place is Jane Timken, a prominent Stark County activist and donor. Most importantly, she's the person Trump wanted at the helm. Timken initially edged Borges by a single vote but couldn't reach the required majority in the first two rounds of secret balloting. That...

Their implication is that funds could dry up if sitting chairman Matt Borges, who is aligned with Gov. John Kasich, wins re-election. Kasich refused to back Trump in the general election, and Borges offered support only reluctantly. "While 2016 was a challenging one for many Ohioans, once the nomination was settled, Chairman Borges had the duty to fully support the Republican Party nominee and his campaign. He did not fulfill that duty. His actions split the state party leadership and could have cost us one of the most important elections of our lifetime!" the letter reads.

Ohio Republicans are rewriting the rules in an attempt to exclude TEA Party members from being members of the State Central Committee. As I’ve written a number of times, Establishment Republicans want Democrats out of office so they can spend our confiscated tax dollars their way. Republicans haven’t been that concerned about spending limits, deficits, and long-term liabilities. In fact, they have used the looseness of the rules to pay their political benefactors with payouts to keep them in power. The Democrats are honest about their payouts; Republicans have learned to lie well. We’re seeing how the RINOs want to...

State Rep. Peggy Lehner, R-Kettering, on Monday won the recommendation of a seven-member Republican screening committee to fill the state Senate seat being vacated by Jon Husted. The recommendation will be presented to the full Republican caucus on Wednesday, said Senate President-elect Tom Niehaus, R-New Richmond. Lehner was recommended over state Rep. Seth Morgan, R-Huber Heights, and three other applicants for the 6th District seat. “We would expect the caucus to support the recommendation,” said Niehaus. Husted was elected secretary of state Nov. 2 and will take that office in January. The official Senate vote on his replacement will come...

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The scandal began as a curiosity. Tom Noe, a gregarious businessman and Republican Party leader in northwest Ohio, had been entrusted with $50 million in state money to invest in rare coins, with the idea of winning fat returns for the workers' compensation fund. It seemed an oddity at most, but like a loose thread on a jacket, the more investigators pulled, the more the garment unraveled, revealing members of Ohio's Republican establishment who had been wined, dined and enriched by Noe. Gov. Bob Taft (R), heir to the state's most famous political name, pleaded no contest...