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A reorganizational meeting of the Butler County Republican Committee which was planned for Monday evening, Sept. 25, has been canceled after protests from numerous members and former members of the local party.

The cancellation was made official in an email to county Republican members on Saturday, which was obtained by the Butler Eagle.

“Unfortunately, we have been advised that a number of Butler County Committee members and former members continue to be unwilling to resolve conflicts and intend to hinder and obstruct those that wish to,” wrote Angela Nielsen Alleman, executive director for the state GOP. “For that reason, the state party will not facilitate a meeting of the duly elected members at this time.”

Alleman added that the state GOP would be willing to reschedule the meeting “when a majority of the elected members petition the state GOP, in writing, to resume this meeting and resolve their conflicts.”

The plan for the reorganizational meeting came after the state GOP ruled earlier this month that former party chairman Gary Vanasdale could no longer lead the Butler County Republican Committee.

This ruling was due, in part, to a perceived conflict of interest stemming from Vanasdale’s wife’s campaign for county district attorney in the November election. Jennifer Gilliland Vanasdale is running as an independent candidate against Republican incumbent Richard Goldinger.

From the perspective of the state GOP, the planned reorganization meeting was intended to name the new chairman and vice chairman for the Butler County Republican Committee, along with other key positions.

Vanasdale and a few others don’t see it that way. His faction of Butler County Republicans publicly called the reorganization meeting a “puppet show.” That faction includes Chet Jack, who took over as acting chairman of the county committee when Vanasdale took a leave of absence.

“The intention of this plan was to seat establishment old-guard puppets at the helm of the committee. This was against the will of the people and the majority of members elected to the County Committee,” wrote Vanasdale, along with Jack and Terri Fuellgraf, in a joint statement Sunday, Sept. 25.

“People no longer want a small number of establishment ‘elites’ calling the shots in the party. Instead, they want their voices to be heard.”

Two days before the meeting was canceled, local attorney Greg Teufel of the OGC Law firm publicly protested it on the grounds that it was “redundant.” The Butler County Republicans went through a similar reorganizational meeting in mid-2022, and it was through that meeting that Vanasdale was named chairman.

Teufel believes that the bylaws, which were passed as a result of that reorganization, should still be in effect, and that the state GOP does not, from his point of view, seem to recognize them as official.

“Bylaws were passed by a vast majority of the elected members of the Butler County Republican Committee in July of 2022. And then the state raised issues with those bylaws and all of those issues were addressed in an amended set of bylaws that was presented to the state,” Teufel said. “Instead, they've persisted acting under the old bylaws, with the full support of the state GOP, and that issue needs to be resolved one way or another.”

While Teufel took some satisfaction in the fact that the state GOP decided not to go forward with the Monday meeting, he is still concerned that the issues facing the Butler County Republicans have not been resolved.

“We're certainly glad to see that they're not going to proceed as they had planned, for the reasons we stated in the protest,” Teufel said. “We're not pleased to see that there's no real resolution to the issues that persist.”

Chicora committee member Cindy Hildebrand did not respond to requests for comment.