New Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party

Plunderbund has the report on today's election of Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party (ORP):

Today the Kasich-controlled Central Committee elected Matt Borges to the job with a vote of 48 to 7 [emphasis added] over his Tea Party opponent Tom Zawistowski. 

Kasich’s hand-picked candidate may have won the vote, but this is far from a win for Kasich.  There will be continued backlash against Kasich and the Ohio GOP from the Tea Party and other “true believers” primarily because every reason they gave for ousting DeWine can now be applied to Borges and the Governor. 

Start with Zawistowski.  The fact that Borges had a Tea Party opponent is already pretty telling.  Kasich counted on their support to win control of the Central Committee.  And now he’s getting challenged by them for his pick to lead the party.  And it comes down to Kasich’s agenda, and Borges’ assumed support for it. 

Weeks before announcing his plan to challenge Borges, Zawistowski sent a letter to Kasich calling his agenda, which includes expanding medicaid, increasing state spending and taxing oil and gas exploration, “a betrayal of the party platform and our conservative values.”
The letter, signed by “over 80 social and fiscal conservative leaders”, also ripped Borges for being wishy-washy on social issues, mentioning his time as a “lobbyist for the liberal homosexual activist group, Equality Ohio.” 

And corruption? 

While 3BP gave no actual evidence DeWine had done anything illegal, Borges pleaded guilty to actual corruption charges back in 2004 for helping to funnel state business to campaign donors.   And just recently it was revealed that Borges had racked up somewhere between $100K and $500K in unpaid taxes. 

This guy is now in charge of all Republican Party finances.  What could possibly go wrong?

And the vote was 48 to 7 in favor of Borges. Not good.