David Skolnick

Remarkably, the Trumbull Republican Party – which can boast of gaining nearly complete control over the executive branch of county government and is making inroads in the judicial branch – is looking for a new chair for the third time in 30 months.

If you count two interim chairs, the person selected at a Dec. 3 meeting will be the fifth person to serve the four-year term initially won June 10, 2022, by Kenneth Kline.

There’s still 18 months left before that term expires.

This is during a historic renaissance for the Republican Party in Trumbull, which has been one of the most reliable Democratic counties in Ohio since the New Deal. When all of the winners of this past election are sworn in, Republicans will control nine of the 11 executive branch seats in the county.

They had none before the 2020 election and a total of three after the 2022 election.

Kline lasted about six weeks into his new term as chairman before resigning.

Kline had been chairman since Feb. 6, 2021, when he took over for Kevin Wyndham, who gave 30 days’ notice of his resignation and served until five days before Kline was selected.

Unable to unite the party, Kline resigned without notice and is probably best remembered for criticizing five party officers who resigned under his watch for being quitters.

“They quit on me, they quit on you, they quit on our candidates,” Kline said before votes were cast electing him to a four-year term.

Kline then subsequently quit, saying he “no longer” wanted to hold the position.

The party voted for Mike Bollas, a retired state auditor, on Aug 4, 2022, to finish Kline’s unexpired term. Bollas beat Wyndham 37-22.

Bollas resigned three days after the Nov. 5 election that saw a Republican clean sweep of contested races on the ballot. Bollas said he resigned to concentrate on taking care of his elderly stepfather and to help his wife, who was preparing for hip surgery.

But if you speak to some Republican candidates who ran in 2022 and during the Nov. 5 elections, they’ll tell you the party did nothing or next to nothing for them.

Republicans won every contested race on the 2022 and 2024 ballots despite years of infighting between those in control of the party and a splinter group that is led by and worked with some of those winning candidates.

Kline drove the two groups further apart. If Bollas made any effort to unite, it didn’t work.

Bollas told me about the historic Republican election in the county in which his party’s candidates won every contested race: “We got most of the candidates we wanted to get in.”

When I asked him to elaborate, he said, “I don’t want to get into that. It’s mudslinging.”

Bollas got into an argument with a Republican candidate at a polling location the day of the election, according to multiple eyewitnesses.

He also publicly criticized Randy Law, a fellow Republican who was elected clerk of courts.

In what was a sharp rebuke of Bollas and the party officers, the central committee in February opposed a series of significant changes to the bylaws.

That included endorsing candidates during the primary, suspending the voting rights of central committee members if they didn’t pay $25 annual dues, the ability to vote on denouncing a Republican candidate and punishment up to expulsion from the party for backing non-Republicans in partisan races.

The backlash was so severe that the party chose to table the changes at a Feb. 10 meeting.

Marleah Campbell, party secretary, is interested in succeeding Bollas as chair. Campbell largely takes care of the party’s operations.

Jim Dunlap, who is interim party head because he is first vice chairman, said he is also interested in the top spot, but he would defer to Campbell.

Campbell said others are considering the position.

Like Kline and Bollas, the opposition doesn’t want Campbell as the party’s leader. But the group also hasn’t yet announced a candidate to run the party.

County Commissioner Denny Malloy, who was elected two years ago without help from the party, said Bollas was merely a “figurehead” as chairman with Campbell running the party and Republicans won despite his “lack of leadership.”

With Bollas as chairman, Campbell said, “The party accomplished things that Trumbull County Republicans never accomplished before.”

Campbell said the party raised tens of thousands of dollars, sent 60,000 mailers of its candidates to Republicans and independents in the county, and “Mike allowed me to step up and fundraise and look at what we accomplished..”

Campbell said before Bollas’ resignation, she planned to step down as party secretary at the end of the year. But she has reevaluated that.

A final note: I’ll be on vacation most of next week so there won’t be a column. I’ll be back the following week.

Skolnick covers politics for the Tribune Chronicle and The Vindicator.