Tag: Butler County Republican Party

Vote for Diane Mullins in the 47th District in Ohio: She has the Republican Party endorsement and she’s a very respected church pastor

I am thrilled to see Rev Diane Mullins running against Sara Carruthers for the 47th Representative seat in Ohio.  Sara has shown herself to be the Nikki Haley of the Butler County Republican Party, disparaging MAGA Republicans as if she hoped that party politics would swing back to the globalist brand that has brought so much trouble to the world of politics.  The Central Committee criticized Sara Carruthers because she broke caucus with House Republicans last year and joined Democrats to elect a moderate Speaker.  She revealed herself as one of “the Blue 22” who joined Democrats to prevent the Ohio House from the type of reforms that were needed to align with an America First platform.  And after Lynda O’Connor was voted out of the Lakota School Board, a lot of soul-searching had to be done in Butler County politics.  It can be a tough job trying to meet the needs of donors who want entirely different things from politicians than voters do, but Sara had crossed the line and paid for it when it came time to issue party endorsements.  Sara has a lot of money in her war chest, but the person on the slate card is her challenger in the Ohio primary, Diane Mullins.  And I am rooting for the pastor of Calvery Church in Hamilton to unseat Sara for a more appropriate representative once Trump is back in office, and an America First platform will be needed from top to bottom in Republican positions.  I’d vote for Diane Mullins in a second and would be very happy to do so.  In my district, I will be voting for Thomas Hall.  However, when it comes to the 47th District, after what Sara Carruthers said and did over a very short time, she deserves to be replaced by someone who represents that district more accurately.  After all, that is the name of the game.  Not every district is the same; the goal is to ensure that voters get proper representation.

From my experience in these kinds of political discussions, where Constitutional concepts are at the core of all discourse, I have found that religious people tend to do better when it comes to defending constitutional necessity.  Since our laws are based on Judeo/Christian Biblical tradition, it takes people familiar with religious life to understand and apply law to daily life.  We’ve tried secular politicians, and they are too easily moved off their mark and corrupted at the slightest temptation.  It has always been a challenging game to play where large amounts of money had to be raised to get a politician’s name identity so that they could even get elected.  That would put politicians always at the short string to those donors, which then could pull them off course to constitutional alignment.  But that has changed a lot over the last few years, where traditional media has lost much of its power, and vlogs, podcasts, and blogs like this have turned out to be far more potent than yard signs and television ads.  More people spend their time getting news online than watching it in front of the television.  So that plays into this opportunity to have someone like Diane Mullins in the 47th seat instead of someone who clearly couldn’t handle the pressure in Sara Carruthers.  Wherever possible, I think the Ohio House would do better to have religious people in representative government, lessons learned.  I’ve always thought that way, but for the sake of society in general, they wanted to believe a more secular approach was possible, but it isn’t.  That experiment has failed miserably.

Of course, there’s more to a representative position than just being religious.  However, in Diane Mullins’s case, she has a lot of experience working with large groups of people and leading community improvements.  It’s interesting to hear how print media trained in classic reporting interprets a pastor of a church running for elected office.  Many of those people have very little understanding of what church on Sundays entails or what the context of biblical study plays in our law and order society.  So they repeat the same woke rules that BlackRock has flowed down to them from the World Economic Forum and expect the people of Hamilton, Ohio, to accept those standards.  News flash, ordinary everyday people don’t care one bit what the aristocrats from Davos think about religious opinion.  They have solid and independent views in Butler County, Ohio, and don’t want a United Nations filter on their political discourse, significantly benefiting Diane Mullins.  She’s fresh and passionate and has proven she can walk through the valley of death and resist temptation.  And that is needed in Columbus.  We need a lot more like her to represent our government.  If we had them, we would be a lot better off in the future.  Traditionally, someone like Diane Mullins would not get much traction because the donors would choke off access to the Central Committees because they controlled the media.  However, as everyone has learned over the last ten years, traditional media is a thing of the past.  A war chest can get some yard signs out.  But it can’t buy people’s opinions as it once did, which has been a hard lesson for the Republican Party.  The hard lesson of Trump should have been evident to everyone, but the globalist types thought they had control, but they never did. 

There are a lot of people who only get involved in politics for the money that can be made off the power the government provides, and among donors, if their business survival depends on globalism, then they are going to try to steer their political representatives into that direction, to protect their viability.  That’s how Mitch McConnell has got himself into so much trouble with his shipping business and how John Boehner lost all credibility as a pot lobbyist.  I’ve had some hard talks with people who have to walk that fine line, and it’s not easy.  However, government service becomes much more viable when the Bible guides representatives.  And I think Diane Mullins would bring a lot of fresh air to the 47th District.  Friendships often form in political efforts because almost everyone is likable when the rubber hits the road.  But we must judge what people do, not what they say, and in Sara’s case, she played a role of deceit when she worked to keep a Speaker of the House who was much more America First from taking the gavel, and for that, she needs to pay.  It will be interesting to see how Diane Mullins does with the Butler County Republican Party endorsement as opposed to the amount of donor money Sara Carruthers has.  It will be a real test of where we are these days on what voters get from their representatives and whether they can break free of the kind of controls that have previously held politics down.  Do the donors control the party, or is it the voters?  We’ll find out on March 19th, 2024.  I hope that Diane Mullins will get a chance to make Butler County Great Again, which could lead to a whole new set of opportunities for a good, moral government. 

Rich Hoffman

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The Ohio Republican Party Endorses President Trump: When I say something, pay attention and benefit yourself

I would offer to anybody who would care to do the work to point out when I was wrong.  Occasionally, I may support a political candidate that doesn’t quite get over the finish line, such as the Russ Loges situation in Butler County, Ohio.  But that was due to him being put on the ticket with a loser, someone I didn’t support, which pulled him down.  But generally, when I help someone or propose a topic for discussion with resolutions attached, I tend to be right.  And I would dare anybody to go over my many years of doing this kind of thing and show me where I have ever been wrong, especially on big topics that are very controversial, such as the Covid attack we experienced around the world.  I was one of the very first people to explain what was happening, and everything I said, everything, turned out to be right even if it took a few years to unravel the story.  So I’m not a spike the football kind of guy, but this is an occasion where I have to spike the football because there was so much opposition along the way, I deserve to spike the football now and then.  This is about several Lincoln Day Dinner conversations that I had in April of 2023 when Ron DeSantis came to speak with his wife, and they were presented to us as the final solution for the 2024 Republican nomination.  As I said on that day, and as was confirmed in December of 2023, the Ohio Republican Party has endorsed President Trump for the 2024 election, and I can’t help but say, “I told you so.” 

Those were dark days after the 2020 election, and I have watched the Republican Party quickly try to bounce back to the mess it was before Trump came along.  It wasn’t that long ago when I had a VIP opportunity to meet with all the Ohio bigwigs at an event in West Chester that involved Kid Rock, and I politely did something else.  At that time, these were the biggest names in politics, and just under ten years later, almost none of them are still in the game.  They have been removed from office in some form or another, and I saw that coming way before anybody else did.  Even before Trump came down the escalator, I was for Trump and said so while everyone else was supporting, well, everyone else.  I quickly saw Trump’s advantages, which are pretty evident today.  I knew what the real challenges were to the Constitution, and I knew it would take a personality like Trump to accomplish our objectives.  And nobody else would be able to.  It took the election of 2016 for everyone to get on board, and even then, it wasn’t until the actual inauguration that people openly admitted to supporting Trump.  And I thought it was disgusting when so many people were quick to jump off the Trump train after the stolen election of 2020.  Yes, it was stolen.  How could anybody think otherwise by this crooked, criminal government that wants someone like Joe Biden in the White House?  How obvious does it have to be for people?  Yet quickly, in the wake of the 2020 election, people retreated to their former positions of supporting weak presidential candidates in 2024.  It made no sense.  The trajectory of the country was not headed in a RINO direction, so why did so many intelligent people insist on such picks?  What did they think would happen as a result?  Didn’t they understand the game that was on the table in our country and worldwide?

At the Lincoln Dinner 2024, I listened to some bizarre theories about why Ron DeSantis would be better than Trump in the White House and I couldn’t help but scratch my head.  That dinner was an excellent event where we all had a chance to meet DeSantis and his wife, and I saw nothing in their personalities that said, “These are the leaders of the free world.”  So why did people insist that DeSantis would be Trump lite, and that was exactly what our country needed?  I disagreed politely, of course.  Nobody knew what was going to happen next.  I had very strong feelings that I knew.  But you never know until you know.  I explained to everyone how Trump would win his legal cases, why he wouldn’t be thrown in jail, that the social media landscape would change to Trump’s advantage, and that he was the only Republican worth supporting.  People thought I was crazy and had drunk the Trump Train Kool-Aid too much and had lost perspective.  So, it was a frustrating night.  I was in the minority and have been for the past three years.  Since Trump was removed from office, I began adding videos to my written articles and there are now well over a thousand of them, most of them are about Trump in some way or another, explaining why Trump is great for America and global politics and I put them out for free, so people can have some point of reference.  Yet many brilliant people couldn’t see what was right in front of their faces, which was baffling. 

The smoke has cleared a lot since then, even though it was just a few months ago, and the Ohio Republican Party has formally endorsed President Trump once again.  The Central Committees get it, and increasingly, the Republican Party is a lot better than that event I spoke about in West Chester with all the heavyweights who lost much of their appeal over the next few years.  But through that smoke, I have called things accurately despite the opposition, and here we are.  Trump is way ahead in the polls.  All court cases against Trump have turned out to be nothing and we are watching our country punch through a very dark time, and redemption is on the radar.  By endorsing Trump, now the Republican Party can get on the same page, which it has needed to do for a while now.  All the fragmented opinions can now be joined, and we can focus on winning.  As I said, there is no place in the future for authoritarian government like what the Biden administration offers.  That is not where people are, nor will they ever be.  The Trump offering is the opposite of what the media is declaring: an authoritarian regime.  It is they who are the authoritarians.  Trump is freedom from that approach and it is just bizarre that more Republicans didn’t see it all along.  So, getting the Ohio Republican Party endorsement was a huge announcement, not just for me, but it allowed everyone else to get on board and unite the party.  I continue to write and say a lot of things, much of them, if not all of them, will turn out to be true.  I hope people will make it easier on themselves and listen instead of trying to fight me over every little thing in the future.  I say things, people listen.  That’s how it works.  Listen and benefit.  That would be the best approach, and when it comes to Trump, it took everyone way too long to get there.  But at least they are there now, and we can put our minds to good things to come because we all deserve it.

Rich Hoffman

Judge Lyons Wants to Put Darbi Boddy in Jail: Yet, the Butler County Republican Party desires unity?

It was ironic that at the same precise moment that Judge Lyons was seeking to put Darbi Boddy, a Lakota school board member in jail just for being on school board-related business in Columbus, Ohio where he imposed a restraining order keeping her from Isaac Adi, another school board member, that the Chairman of the Republican Party of Butler County, Ohio was sending out a letter trying to unify the party after a tough election. Here was a prime case of some old washed-up crusty crab who has been trying to destroy a mom with fines and incarceration because Darbi essentially didn’t kiss the ring of Lynda O’Connor, who had just lost the election, and that same GOP endorsed her. Literally, just a few days before, I was at another political event where Isaac was there, and he was telling me how much Darbi was like a sister to him and that he loved her. Yet just a few days later, he and his attorney, another sucker for Lynda O’Connor, were trying to put Darbi in jail while her husband was overseas serving our nation. And they have a child at home forming opinions about the world and she sees all this harassment of her mommy by really ruthlessly diabolical people. Smart judge. Smart Isaac. Isaac wasn’t lying to me, was he? Actions always tell the truth. And to all the other people who have gone way out on a limb of injustice to stand behind Lynda, who positioned everyone for failure out of pure selfishness. As I read that letter from Todd Hall, my phone was constantly going off from a lot of Darbi supporters who wanted to go to war with these people in a very vicious way. Somehow, I don’t think this is the kind of unification Todd was talking about in his letter. But I read it carefully and tried to find something positive about it.

I’ve known Todd Hall for a long time, and I like him. I’ve stood up for him when many people wanted his head in much the way I stand up for Darbi. I like to see good people trying to do good things. If they stumble their feet along the way a bit, I don’t get hung up on it. I judge intent for what it should be, and actions mean a lot in determining that intent. And I understand what Todd Hall wants to do after a tough loss, which is good. To get the Republican Party all pointed in the right direction. The trouble is that everyone has a different opinion about what the right direction is. It is the job of leadership, no matter if it’s a political party, a company, or a sports team to figure out what “right” is and get a team accomplishing it together. And in the Butler County Republican Party, over the last several years, Jennifer Edwards at Fox 19 is always there to stoke the fires, as I warned everyone about. She doesn’t do to Democrats what she does to Republicans. She was again pushing the Darbi story in Butler County just as she did the story against Roger Reynolds where Sheriff Jones went after him, and other people completely maliciously, just to show power over other rivals within the party. When power becomes more important to these teammates, any organization is destined to fail; in this case, voters have been taking notice. And Todd tried to point that out in his letter with motivational quotes to get everyone’s attention. But one particular quote I thought was especially relevant and was the point of the entire letter:

Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships – Michael Jordan.

That sounds generic enough, but there is a good story to this. Everyone knows Michael Jordan was probably the greatest NBA player ever to live, in a time when people liked professional basketball before the league started eating from the hands of communist China. But while Jordan was with the Bulls, they won six national championships, so obviously, he was essential to the team. But a lot of background stuff went on that allowed Michael Jordan to be all he could. He had teammates like Scottie Pippen, who was always a quiet background player who was excellent in his own way, so he drew double teams away from Jordan and allowed some of those games with such spectacular results. Then there was Dennis Rodman, the crazy character who was always causing trouble and drew a lot of attention, again allowing Michael Jordan to be more of what his talents could provide to their full extent. Then there was the coach, Phil Jackson, who had a unique leadership ability to get all those crazy characters pointed toward wins on the court when, if left to their own devices, they would likely have flown apart and destroyed each other. Putting all those unique personalities together in one place without fights is tough. But a good leader like Jackson was able to, and the results were evident, as Todd Hall pointed out in his letter. Perhaps he was thinking about teamwork generically; even Michael Jordan needed a team. But it’s more than that; it’s a leadership element that is the most desired in the world, much more than gold or any precious metal, winning leadership, no matter what organization we are discussing. The Chicago Bulls had it; teams that had Tom Brady on them had it. We see it in specific companies, entertainment, music, and art. And we see it in politics with President Trump.

Rob here is Judge Lyons and these are the kind of people we are dealing with
Looks like Kerry told on these three

When you don’t have your version of Phil Jackson in a leadership role but have lots of wild personalities on a team, like Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, and Scottie Pippen, winning isn’t guaranteed.  Great talent can do what great talent does, but wins are hard to come by without leadership.  Someone should have told Judge Lyons and Sheriff Jones that being a bunch of stingy old mustache men with about five minutes left in their careers isn’t enough.  They should be recruiting new, bright people so the Republican Party can win next week, next month, and next year.  But after the way people have seen how the GOP has treated Darbi; who in their right mind would want to play for that team?  Who wants to be thrown in jail because they refused to kiss the ring of some egomaniac that is only in politics because they don’t have that kind of respect anywhere else?  Once they step out of politics and go to Ace Hardware to buy some nails for the house, people stop saying hi to them and treating them like local celebrities.  So they seek personal fulfillment in destructive ways, bringing the party down which reflect in losses at the ballot box.  If the Republican Party isn’t giving the public wins, then people aren’t interested.  And that was what fueled the Chicago Bulls when Jordan was playing there.  Without the successes, they would have just been another team.  But what we have now is a Butler County Republican Party run by older relics hanging on to their past who are jealous of the young, beautiful people, and they aren’t interested in winning.  They are interested in the power of their position.  And if they are shown disrespect, they want to put their critics in jail.  That is precisely what happened to the former Butler County auditor, Roger Reynolds.  And that’s what they are trying to do to Darbi Boddy and many others who are challenging the old farts with playing time, looking for a victory.  But victory isn’t essential to the Republican Party, and the public is losing interest.  And it will take more than a letter from Todd Hall to fix any of that.

Rich Hoffman

The Great Leadership of Todd Minniear on 55 KRC: Standing up for good Republican government voters can be proud of

You might have heard the fantastic Liberty Township Trustee Todd Minniear on 55 KRC with Brian Thomas talking about the overwhelming vote from the Butler County Central Committee to censor 22 Republican representatives for working with Democrats to elect a much more moderate Speaker of the House, which in many ways was political sabotage. As it turned out, the BCCC voted to censor those Republicans by a tremendous margin, which joins many other central committees across the state and will help start the path of removing those representatives from office. The next time they want to run, this censorship will make it more difficult for them to seek office. And this is how it has to be in these RINO hunting days where Democrats simply put an “R” next to their name and misrepresent themselves to the public who thinks they are voting for Republicans. I’ll put that radio interview here for everyone to listen to again because it’s an important political step and shows outstanding leadership on behalf of Todd.

Additionally, I am including the letter I read in my own video podcast on the matter, which Todd Minniear sent to the Butler County Central Committee ahead of their meeting to vote on behalf of censor, laying out the arguments. It was a windy day and a tough thing to read, so I also include it here as an example of how good government looks and taking a bold stand in favor of a position and sticking with it. It is wonderful to see area Republicans standing on integrity, but even better, it’s great to see a Butler County politician, especially in Liberty Township, Ohio, showing such leadership when it would be easier just to keep his head down and hope to get an invite to the latest wine tasting ceremony and be a popular guy with the locals. It’s much better to express courage, judgment, and integrity, which benefits our community more than just another baby-kisser in ways that are measured best when leadership is sought and appreciated. 

To: Butler County Central Committee Representatives

From: Todd Minniear – Liberty Township Trustee and Liberty 21 Central Committeeman 

I am writing to encourage you to vote yes this Thursday to censure 22 Republican representatives who voted in favor of Speaker Jason Stephens, and to commend Representatives Creech, Gross, and Hall for voting to support the Republican caucus nominee Derek Merrin.   

I am a novice in politics.  Embarrassingly, I didn’t get serious about protecting our conservative values until Governor DeWine violated my constitutional property rights by shutting down my business during Covid.  In response, I sued the Governor and the Ohio Department of Health/Amy Acton.  My suit was successful in enabling my business to open fully and saved many businesses across OH. 

The Covid attack strategy also highlighted the fact that the number 1 job of ALL levels of government is to protect our freedom.  This greater awareness inspired me to run for Liberty Township Trustee in November of 2021.  Thanks to hard-working conservative campaign supporters (several of them on BC Central Committee) I was elected.    

I share that background as context for why I am motivated to send you this note today.  As you know, we need our Republican representatives to protect our lives and life by moving conservative values forward and fighting against Democrats who continue to move further Left. 

The 22 out of 67 House Republicans who partnered with all 32 House Democrats to elect the speaker preferred by Democrats betrayed the conservative Republicans of Ohio, severed the Republican supermajority, and most certainly made deals with the Democrats that will greatly limit the fantastic opportunity we had to move conservative legislation forward. 

Thanks to the Butler County Republican Women’s Club, I had a chance to sit in on their last meeting where House Representatives Carruthers, Creech, Gross, and Hall answered questions on this topic.    

Here are the headlines driving my support to censure.

·       The Republicans went into caucus and agreed to vote to select a new speaker.  There were several House Representatives in the mix and Derek Merrin won.  Merrin should have received all Republican votes and been the new speaker.  However, in a shocking move, 22 Republicans partnered with all Democrats to elect Stephens.  When two of our Butler County representatives were asked at the Women’s Club meeting if this was “dishonest on the part of the 22” they said “yes” – the agreement was to unite to elect Merrin, but they reneged.  You can see how this has divided our party.

·       It is clear, and our Butler County representatives confirmed, Merrin is significantly more conservative than Stephens who was elected by the Democrats and the 22.  Having a less conservative speaker, one the Democrats supported, means certain conservative agendas will not move forward. 

·       Stephens understands he will need these Democrat votes again to be reelected two years from now.  He must stifle the conservative agenda to earn the Democrat votes.    

·       Why do you think all 32 Democrats voted for Stephens?  The specific deals made with the Democrats will become known.  Three of our four Butler County Representatives said, “deals are always made.”

·       The State Central Committee properly censured the 22 and the last list I saw showed ~20 other counties in Ohio censured, I believe Warren County’s Central Committee had a unanimous 100% vote to censure.  Butler County should be known as one of these leading conservative counties.

·       The vote for speaker is not a piece of legislation where reasonable minds can vote differently.  It was mission-critical for our party to be united and put a conservative speaker in place.  The 22 wanted a more moderate speaker and they sacrificed the strength of our supermajority, literally handing power to the Democrats to get their moderate speaker. 

·       Most importantly we must send a formal message to 1) the 22, that they made a tremendous error, 2) the 45 Republicans who stood for the party, including Rodney Creech, Jennifer Gross, and Thomas Hall that we commend them, and 3) any future representative, that they must stay true to the conservative principles of the party and don’t ever make this same mistake.

I have great respect for the Butler County Central Committee.  We are one of the few political bodies that consistently stand and vote based on conservative principles – principles over all else.   

Todd Minniear – Liberty Township Trustee

Many people don’t know that Todd was one of the most courageous people when it counted most who sued the State of Ohio and the DeWine administration for the Covid lockdowns. He was successful and was able to reopen his business in the heat of Amy Acton, the Health Director at the time, trying to shut down all businesses on the latest CDC policy of mass social distancing as a means of treating Covid 19 which was being spread from China to mass populations to harm them, likely purposefully, during an election year to implement the World Economic Forum Great Reset. I’ve read enough about the situation to see that the evidence for such statements is more than abundant. But at the time, it wasn’t so clear, and it took a lot of guts for Minniear to climb out on a limb like that, challenge the DeWine administration in court, and win. But that should be a lesson to all others. If you stand by the Constitution, you will find that our entire court system is built around it, and you will win most of your court challenges. That is the case with Lakota schools. That is the case with Covid restrictions. That is the case overall of Free Speech cases such as the one recently where a magistrate won a judgment against a Butler County Judge, which will be a topic for another article all its own. The Constitution works, and it is great to see people in politics who understand that basic premise. But it takes leadership and courage to stand behind law and order sometimes, and under tremendous pressure, Todd Minniear has done so and continues to. His leadership was evident in the Central Committee vote and continues to express itself in ways that greatly benefit the residents of Butler County’s Liberty Township residents. I wish there were more like Todd Minniear out there. But I’m happy to see that there is just one. 

Rich Hoffman

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Making The Butler County Republican Party Great Again: People don’t want to think of Boss Hogg when they think of politics

At first, I thought of the complaints as leftovers from contentious issues that have divided the party, such as the Thomas Hall battle with Matt King and the obvious rift with Sheriff Jones and Roger Reynolds. I tend to view those kinds of things as family squabbles within a household. Usually, people get over things and move on, which was happening with that nice event for Thomas Hall. But when people who don’t usually deal with the Butler County Republican Party are complaining, they don’t know about the details, only their experience with it. And that experience has not lived up to the reputation of the past, where Butler County had a lot of volunteers, high engagement, and the kind of national reputation that made President Trump want to come and campaign in the area. But the reputation that was developing, because of all the rifts from leadership that was flowing out into state and federal politics, was not a good one. For a community of over 400,000 people, small-town politics was back in fashion where a few party leaders had turned the wonderful Butler County Republican Party into something that would make Boss Hogg from the Dukes of Hazzard blush. And that was embarrassing to hear. I had been hoping that after the 2022 election, many of those trends would level out and that much of the problem had been not having the unifying factor of Trump to rally behind. Without Trump, the party has reverted back to the differences that it had during the early 2000s. But now that Trump was running again, my hope was that the party would unite again behind him. However, this time there appeared to be a different kind of problem. Many older people in leadership now are in the way of younger and hungrier personalities, and those elements feel restricted in their ambitions, which is not a good thing for future growth.

This problem reminded me of the Cincinnati Bengals and how the Brown family just can’t get out of their own way for success. Sure, they have had some good players over the years, but they just have not been able to put together a successful string of seasons to show fabulous organizational presence. They went to the Super Bowl last year and had a pretty good season. They had the whole off-season to get better and improve on the previous year with essentially the same players. The Bengals invested in a new offensive line, but the results were not good. The quarterback, Joe Burrow, has been sacked more than any other NFL quarterback. So the Bengals didn’t get better because the problems with the Bengals were in their coaching and front office. Not the players on the field. So if leadership was always the problem, the Bengals didn’t help themselves by investing in an offensive line; if they didn’t have the kind of coaches who could take advantage of those improvements, then, of course, the problem would still present itself as a problem. Obviously, the Butler County Republican Party was having the same issues. Many new talents are coming into the party who can network and connect with the world. There are lots of MAGA Republicans across the state who are newly engaged in politics and are looking for jobs to do. But then, when they interact with Butler County, we have this Boss Hogg image that people have of our elderly leadership, and it turns them off, and it’s starting to show to the outside world. 

It was good to see a nice GOP event in Butler County dedicated to a victory celebration for Thomas Hall at the Majors Barn. It was a tough election season, and some hard feelings emerged during that race, which clearly split the Butler County Republican Party in half. But several people supported Matt King, who ran against Thomas for the 46th Representative Ohio seat. They were there to congratulate Thomas and to show leadership in coming together as a party now that the election was over. There were people there that I could speak with where things got pretty heated, and we had some nice conversations, and everyone made up. I know everyone couldn’t come, people were busy, but you could tell a lot about Republican Party leadership by who was there and who wasn’t. I can tell you someone, who was there, Roger Reynolds, was, and we had a nice conversation about the horrendous problem that was happening to him. I asked him if Sheriff Jones was going to pay for all his massive legal bills for the phony trial coming up for him in December of 2022, which to me looks like a complete political hit job. That is not the kind of thing that makes the Republican Party better, but something that has made it worse. Roger kind of smiled at me and shrugged his shoulders. He’s one of the good guys, and his only focus was on getting that mess behind him so he could live his life again. And Thomas and I spoke about the new Speaker of the House and what an excellent relationship those two had together, which was encouraging. Good things were happening. But I also received reports from some of the state people and the federal people who deal with Republican parties all over the country. Their impression of the Butler County Republican Party was not a good one. There were a lot of complaints about engagement, phone calls, appreciation letters, and just basic organization, and while I kept up a happy face inside, I was pretty mad. I am proud of the Butler County Republican Party and don’t like hearing people say bad things about it. 

Hey, I get it; we all get older. You look in the mirror and what looks back is a person falling apart. Age can be cruel. And when the dog doesn’t respect you, and your wife is complaining about you leaving your socks in the corner by the bathroom, and nobody thinks you’re all that special, it can feel great to go to a Party meeting and have everyone worship you for all the things you have done in your life. It’s hard to be big enough to get out of the way and let younger people step in and show their ambitions.   That has always been the Bengals problem; the Brown family has always gotten in the way of its own success. And that is what is happening with the Butler County Republican Party. It’s not just from the direction of the police, but there are commissioners, trustees, and many others who are holding positions as placeholders, then getting mad at the youth for nipping at their heels. And my advice to them, the elders, is if you really love the Republican Party, you would want to do the right thing, and that is to get out of the way and let those with the most ambition and freshest eyes step into leadership positions. Sometimes being a great leader is in getting out of the way. And hanging on to the past and living off a reputation to hide the aging process from your own eyes isn’t love. It’s selfish, and the only result is that you become the latest Boss Hogg in the world and become known not for good deeds but for corruption and ill-advised political fights that ruin everything a lifetime took to build.

Rich Hoffman

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The Lincoln Day Dinner of 2022: Battles coming, going, and brewing

It’s always good to talk about nice things, and the Lincoln Day Dinner for 2022 for the Butler County Republican Party was undoubtedly something good to talk about. Like I say all the time, politics is a blood sport. People aren’t always supposed to get along. So it’s not the function of a prominent Republican gathering at the Savanah Center in West Chester to just have everyone get along, even though they did. The goal of politics is to get the best people into public offices that can be obtained. Often the best management of any resource involves pressure applied to individual vision to draw it out for the public’s benefit. In Butler County, with Todd Hall as the party’s Chairman, it has undoubtedly been a success story. Butler County is a large, wealthy county in Ohio; it has over 400,000 people and a major national university. And every officeholder position in the county is held by a Republican. That is something to say and provides a good indication of what the people of Butler County are really like. But it’s not easy to manage all the ‘A type” personalities who get into politics for their communities. The people who run for office don’t tend to be the shy types, so managing all those personalities, especially when they sometimes get cross with each other, is quite a challenge, and Todd Hall does the job well, which culminated in the evening at that dinner which was nothing short of magnificent. 

Mike Pompeo came in to speak at this Lincoln Day event, along with the nationally bestselling author Vivek Ramaswamy, who managed to find time between Fox News media appearances to give a rousing speech to a hungry room of freedom fighters. Warren Davidson, of course, was there and was instrumental in bringing Mike Pompeo in, fresh from the Trump administration, where we all had the feeling of reloading for the next round of political battles that were coming next. I had a chance to talk to Jim Renacci a lot as he came down from his campaign for governor of Ohio, which is going well. There were many people from all over the state of Ohio who came to this Butler County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner, which filled the Savannah Center into every crevasse. It was great to see so many friends in one place simultaneously. The battles that everyone fights for are worth it, especially on evenings like that one. During primary season, like the one we have this year where there are so many contentious races, such as the governor race where Mike DeWine is running for re-election, and Jim Renacci was challenging him, it would be easy to have factions of discontent which wouldn’t even be able to shake hands. But the event’s mood, led by Todd Hall and guided by the diligent hands of hundreds of volunteers who worked behind the scenes for the party’s best interests, provided an atmosphere that felt more like Mar-a-Lago from Trump’s Florida home than just another political gathering. Every last touch had behind it a love of country and an intention to do good in the world. Different people, of course, have different ideas about what good is, but the pursuit of it was apparent for all to see. 

It’s not like the Butler County Republican Party was playing things easy; they recently endorsed Jim Renacci for governor over the incumbent. In the audience was Justice Pat DeWine, the son of the governor.  Jane Timken was in the audience, and Mike Gibbons, who are both running for the hotly contested Senate seat soon to be vacated by Rob Portman. There were literally hundreds of contentious side stories that could fill novels that interacted in the halls of that grand event, but what impressed me was the candor with which it was all presented. Todd Hall’s management style with all these unique personalities allows for hotly contested debate and personal battles that still celebrates the achievement voters get in the end, and that is something special. Politics is tricky under the best of circumstances, but routinely pulling off successes like what Butler County enjoys is quite an accomplishment. Of course, behind the scenes come the unifying elements of Ann Becker, whom I’ve known for many years now, going back to the Cincinnati Tea Party, which she led. Debbie Lang who always brings energy to everything she’s around. Joe Statzer and Mark Murphy work on all the details. There is a long list of people behind the scenes who make the Republican Party of Butler County, such a great organization. I single out Todd Hall because it takes a unique person to give all these diverse personalities autonomy and to trust that people will find common ground and build from that position rather than break out in fistfights from the many different perspectives that so many officeholders have. Guided by a less skilled hand, everything could turn out to be a disaster rather than the success story that it continues to be. 

Ultimately, the Lincoln Day event is a good team builder, and they are always nice to go to when the people putting them on so much love what they do. But what the public gets is a strong party that represents them where it matters most. Contention in politics is good; it forces the best people and best ideas to the surface to manage on behalf of the voters, and Butler County is an example of how it should be done everywhere in the country. The Butler County Republican Party is the example that everyone should be following, especially in the newly Trump-led Republican party. The management style it takes to unify so many diverse personalities is the stuff success seminars are built on. To have an evening in the height of election season just to take a breath of fresh air is nice. But the reminder of why so many people get into public office and how an army of volunteers behind the scenes contribute their time and energy without ever thinking about pay tells a story that is worth recognizing. If not for them and the tireless hours of work that go on behind the scenes, there would not be a great Republican Party of Butler County. There would not be a Republican in every Butler County political office. The strength of the party is because of all the effort that countless people put into it, and by the leadership of Todd Hall to have just enough guiding force to keep people together just enough but not to impose on them any dictates which might threaten their unique gifts for which voters could then select as representatives. The whole evening was just as impressive as the Butler County Republican Party is itself. It reflected many thousands of hours of hard work and an ambitious eye toward tomorrow; whereas bad as things look on the national horizon, in Butler County, Ohio, all is great and getting better. If such a formula could project itself nationwide under the next Trump presidency, there is a lot to be excited about in the years to come. Because ultimately, politics is there to serve the Republic for which we all fight to make a stand, and the voters are in charge and respected by the guiding light of hard-working people who genuinely understand how to do it right.

Rich Hoffman

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