Update at 3:45: I’ve been informed by Ohio GOP insiders that by law, candidates are not entitled to use the party’s mail permit. However, the party may choose to send mail on behalf of a candidate. They claim this story is false, and noted that Chairman DeWine recently profiled Rep. Sears in a mass email. In addition, a recent piece was just approved for Rep. Hite, who apparently once endorsed Morgan but backed out of the endorsement because of a heated primary he is in. I report, you decipher.

I’m getting multiple reports- including from legislators themselves- that Ohio GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine is not allowing Ohio House Republican Legislators from using the Ohio GOP’s discounted postage rate if they endorsed Seth Morgan for Auditor instead of Dave Yost.

In addition to State Senator Tim Grendell, the State Representatives who have publicly endorsed Seth Morgan thus far (per the press release on March 1) are John Adams, Pete Beck, Terry Boose, Danny Bubp, Dave Burke, Courtney Eric Combs, Terry Blair, Ron Maag, Jerrod Martin, Jeff McClain, Margaret Ann Ruhl, Barb Sears, Joe Uecker, Lynn Wachtmann… and after that press release was sent, Dick Adams of the 79th District also endorsed Morgan.

I understand that Republican Leader Bill Batchelder was not DeWine’s pick in the battle between Batchelder and liberal Matt Dolan… and the messaging in Megan Piwowar’s press releases is far conservative sounding than anything I could imagine hearing from Ohio GOP headquarters. So there was perhaps a contentious history here before this election cycle.

But because of a primary in the Auditor’s race, is DeWine really willing to punish Republicans who desperately want to knock Comrade Budish out of the majority? Politics can be childish and petty business, but forcing conservative legislators to pay more for mail is quite extreme.

From the Inbox:

Huber Heights, Ohio – Auditor of State candidate Seth Morgan, CPA was endorsed by the Greene County Republican Party with 60 percent of the vote on Thursday, February 18.

“Seth Morgan continues to be recognized as the most qualified candidate of either party for Auditor of State,” said Rob Scott, Friends of Seth Morgan Communications Director. “This endorsement further builds on the huge base of support Seth has gathered across Ohio.”

Ohio Republican Chairman Kevin DeWine currently serves as a Greene County Central Committee member and resides in the county. Both Morgan and his primary opponent Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost were in attendance to ask for the county’s endorsement for state auditor.

So what’s going on here with Rep. Morgan being endorsed by two very red counties?

From William Hershey in The Dayton Daily News:

Morgan entered the auditor’s race after incumbent Republican Auditor Mary Taylor, like Morgan a CPA, joined GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich as his lieutenant governor running mate.

Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine, however, asked Yost to enter the race and paved the way for his endorsement. Yost had been running for the GOP nomination for attorney general against former U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine, Kevin DeWine’s second cousin.

Members of the Tea Party movement and other anti-Mike DeWine conservatives lashed out at the move by the state party. They want Morgan in the race for auditor and Yost in the attorney general race. Kevin DeWine said Yost, as a prosecutor and former county auditor, had the experience needed for the state auditor’s race and was already geared up for a statewide campaign.

“I think Seth could have a bright future in our party if he makes the right decisions,” Kevin DeWine said in an e-mail. “He’s a politically ambitious young man and sometimes that desire to climb the political ladder can make you do things you end up regretting.”

The state chairman said that he knows many of Morgan’s House colleagues asked him to stick around to help them try to regain the majority.

However, State Rep. John Adams, R-Sidney, House Republican whip, the number three GOP leadership position, is behind Morgan in the auditor’s because of his CPA credentials and “his tenacity and work ethic.”

“I don’t believe his political career will be over with, whatever happens in the auditor’s race,” said Adams.

This primary battle is between two solid conservatives, and I wish it wasn’t taking place. The grassroots should be focused elsewhere- ie, defeating Gov. Strickland, defeating the Third Frontier, and winning back the Congress.

However, Rep. Morgan has every right to run and is qualified for the job.  I think DeWine’s comment about Seth “doing things he may end up regretting” is a really uncalled for and sounds very threatening. Between voting for massive tax-increases in the legislature and his repeated verbal attacks on the conservative wing of the Republican Party, Kevin DeWine already has more to “regret” than Seth Morgan could rack up in 10 lifetimes of political maneuvering.

Kevin, you have handled this entire situation poorly. No matter what the specific details are, you have managed, in a politically toxic environment for Democrats, to make a huge distraction for Republicans. So please, just shut up!

Yeah, me neither.

But here is the audio from Ohio Republican Party Chairman Kevin DeWine and MTR Lobbyist Chris Redfern from today anyway.

Both Chris and reporter Mark Naymik are fairly insulting to TEA party activists. And anyone paying attention to the debates over Gov. Bob Taft’s tax increase and how then-Chairman Bob Bennett insulted Republicans for standing in opposition, will be shocked to hear DeWine’s defense of phasing out the income tax. I think it is an admission that conservatism wins elections.

During the debate, Redfern also lies about Ken Blackwell’s proposed Tax Expenditure Limitation Amendment from 2005, which was later implemented only in statute, saying that it would have eliminated the state income tax. The TEL was only a cap on increases in state spending and didn’t even touch creative spending like bond issues and Federal stimulus Obamabucks. But its not like Chris has ever let the facts get in the way of a lame insult.

To give you an idea of how liberal the audience is, here are their first 5 questions:

1) How do we go about creating more “green jobs” and sustainability blah blah blah?

2) I’m an annoying social worker who is proud to be a social worker. Will you (Kevin DeWine) apologize for calling Ted Strickland’s running mate a “social worker?”

3) Kevin DeWine, why does your party oppose the murder of unborn babies, and what are you doing, if anything, to change that?

4) What should the legislature do about the Supreme Court deciding in favor of the freedom of speech in the Citizens United case?

5) What do you do to make sure the extremes (ie, TEA party activists) don’t run parties, and make sure you represent all of Ohio?

And this is why on every election morning, I turn towards Cleveland and pray that it sinks into Lake Erie.

I’ll post major updates here, but in the mean time follow my updates on Twitter. I’m the only blogger watching it in person. They will likely endorse Dave Yost for Auditor tonight.

Update: Wow that was fast! Was expecting this to take a few hours with perhaps a private closed-door session. They endorsed Dave Yost for Attorney General, with only John Becker voicing mild opposition to an endorsement of any kind.

Still waiting for a release from the Yost campaign.

DeWine doesn’t think I’m always fair with my blogging. But he was upbeat, especially considering that for all conservatives might have justified reason for being annoyed at him, I think he’s getting a bad rap in this case. I’ve never seen a handful of conservative sectarians in Ohio misfire quite like this. However, Seth has every right to keep fighting.

Update @7:23pm: From Team Morgan:

From:Emery Paul Phipps Jr.
Subject: Yost receives ORP endorsement

FYI,

Dave Yost was endorsed this evening by the Ohio Republican Party.  While this changes little in our efforts to make Seth the next Auditor of State it shows that Dave is now the “establishment” candidate of the ORP turning his back on those who worked so hard to get him County Endorsements and who stood by him on principle while he claimed to be running for Attorney General the last year and a half.

Since his taking a deal and moving to the Auditor seat, he boasts that his campaign coffers have filled with upwards of $100,000.

He must be losing grassroots support at a 1 to 1 ratio of supporter to establishment money raised because my phone is ringing off the hook and my email inbox is full of people who are none to happy with Dave’s flip flopping.

Thanks to each of you for your continued support for Seth.  We stand resolute and will continue this campaign with your prayers and support.

On to Victory.

Update @ 7:27: More email from Team Morgan:

OHIO REPUBLICAN PARTY USES AUDITOR’S OFFICE AS BARGAINING CHIP

Huber Heights, Ohio – The Ohio Republican Party elite showed today how backroom deals do not serve Ohio citizens. After political pressure, Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost caved to the party select by bowing out of the Ohio Attorney General race that he had campaigned for more than a year against Mike DeWine in the Republican primary election and was dealt an endorsement by the party for Ohio auditor.

“Dave Yost would have been a great attorney general,” said Rob Scott, Communications Director of Friends of Seth Morgan. “The Ohio auditor’s office is not a bargaining chip to be played for nor is it an office for someone who concedes to political pressure.”

“Seth Morgan is unbending towards the political establishment and special interests. As a certified public accountant, a small business owner, and employer, he understands the importance of objectivity and independence for the taxpayers of Ohio,” Scott said.

Seth Morgan was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 2008 after serving seven years on the Huber Heights City Council. He is a Small Business Owner and Certified Public Accountant. For more information about Seth Morgan visit www.SethMorgan.org.

This week, the Ohio GOP’s screening committee was scheduled to meet before the central committee’s meeting on Friday. As was decided in September, they were supposed to consider making an endorsement in the one state-wide race they had not made one in yet… the race Ohio Attorney general, between Delaware County Prosecutor Dave Yost and liberal, gun-grabbing, former US Senator Mike DeWine (aka “recipe boy“).

That was the plan… UNTIL last night’s conference call, where Ohio GOP Chairman Chairman Kevin DeWine (Mike’s second cousin) suggested that they all should agree to his motion to pull the plug on the endorsement vote. Chairman DeWine only has a single vote on the committee, but loyal party stalwarts diligently fell in line at his request.

Why the last-minute change? No one is entirely sure. They need 44 votes to suspend the rules and 2/3rds of the committee must vote to suspend the rules prohibiting endorsements in contested, non-incumbent primary elections.

ORPers claim that both sides don’t have the necessary 44 votes and they expect low turn out at this meeting. But how can we trust their own internal “whip counts” and take that at face value?

There is no doubt that the party establishment, including the most recent Republican presidential candidate, is firmly in support of Mike DeWine. But now that DeWine’s communications director and fundraiser have left and Mike’s campaign is in shambles, maybe the committee was willing to endorse the only candidate which embraces the conservative principles of the Republican Party: Dave Yost.

There is no question that the Republican grassroots is with Yost.  As someone who worked for Ken Blackwell’s campaign in 2006, I remember vividly how difficult it was to get Republican activists to phone banks if they also had to make calls to also support DeWine. We would have gladly held our own phone banks, but simply didn’t have the money to conduct such efforts independently of the ORP. I really can’t imagine that John Kasich would appreciate that sort of drag on the party’s ticket.

Polls have shown that at no time in history are voters more upset at big government and the political status quo. And  in this election cycle, the party would be hard pressed to find a worse candidate to run than Mike DeWine, a former Senator who earned a F rating from the NRA, supported speech-stifling campaign fiance laws, opposed drilling in ANWR, and stopped dozens of conservative judges from taking the bench by joining the “Gang of 14.” DeWine was part of the same Republican elite that forgot their party’s platform and handed Washington over to President Obama and the far-left.

And even Ohio Democrat leaders have read the tea leaves and are worried about a Yost candidacy. As was reported in the Cincinnati Enquirer on December 1…

Monday night, 415 Cincinnati area Democrats gathered in the 20th Century Theater in Oakley to hear Ohio Democratic Party officials lay out their plan for delivering a “knockout” blow to the GOP in the 2010 elections.

With double-digit unemployment and approval ratings of Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland and President Obama nose-diving, the Democratic party will have its work cut out for it.

The 20th Century, of course, is a theater, and state party chairman Chris Redfern and Doug Kelly, the party’s executive director, put on a stage show, complete with graphics, comedy one-liners and even a clip from a Blues Brothers movie to fire up the crowd.[...]

- Kelly also predicted there may be an upset brewing in the GOP primary for Ohio attorney general, with Delaware County prosecutor Dave Yost beating the better known Mike DeWine.

So if the grassroots know and a liberal like Doug Kelly knows, then how likely is it that the screening committee doesn’t know that Dave Yost is the superior candidate? My educated guess is that this was a purposeful effort to stall a meeting where Yost would have won the endorsement, to give Cousin Kevin a chance to browbeat and arm twist.

Is Kevin DeWine starting to make good on his promise last year to move the party even further away from conservative principles?

Stay tuned for more details…