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A meeting planned to reorganize the Butler County Republican Committee on Monday will be protested by at least one faction of the county’s committee.

On Friday evening, local attorney Greg Teufel, of the OGC Law firm, announced that his faction of the Butler County Republican Committee would formally protest the reorganization meeting, which was scheduled to take place on Monday, Sept. 25, at Butler County Community College under the leadership of the state Republican Party.

At the meeting, the Butler County Republican Committee is to elect its new county chairman, vice chairman and other officials under the guidance of Jesse Daniel, a designee of Lawrence Tabas, the state Republican Party chairman.

Teufel represents a group of Butler County Republicans who believe that the bylaws put in place in July 2022 should still be in effect. In his letter announcing the protest, he decried the reorganization meeting scheduled for this Monday as “redundant.”

“The BCRC objects to the purported second reorganizational meeting because the BCRC already had its reorganizational meeting in July 2022 and having another reorganizational meeting is redundant, unnecessary, and without support under the law,” Teufel said in the Friday statement.

Teufel pointed to how the state GOP had previously recognized Gary Vanasdale as the county’s Republican committee.

Per that group’s bylaws, he said, Vanasdale was removed and new leadership elected.

According to Teufel, Vanasdale was formally removed as chairman of the newly-organized committee in November 2022 after missing three consecutive meetings. Teufel said that the state Republican Party continued to recognize Vanasdale as the chairman of the BCRC, even though he was, under the bylaws of the time, not even a member.

Teufel said the Butler County group has co-chairs currently, one of whom is Erik Edwards.

It was ruled that earlier this month by the state GOP that Vanasdale could no longer serve as chairman due, in part, to a perceived conflict of interest stemming from his wife’s campaign for county District Attorney — Jennifer Gilliland Vanasdale is running as an independent candidate against Republican incumbent Richard Goldinger.

“The PA GOP implicitly recognized the validity of the July 2022 reorganizational meeting by its recognition of Mr. Vanasdale as a Chair or the Chair of the BCRC for over a year,” wrote Teufel in a news release. “If the PA GOP believes that the July 2022 reorganizational meeting was for some reason invalid, then Mr. Vanasdale would never have become a Chair of the BCRC.”

That said, neither Teufel’s faction nor Vanasdale’s faction are happy with the reorganization meeting. Vanasdale’s group recently placed an ad in the Butler Eagle decrying what it called the “PA GOP Puppet Show.”

“While we are not aware of a formal protest, it would not surprise us if the majority of members choose not to show up to the PA GOP puppet show,” wrote Gary Vanasdale, along with Chet Jack and Terri Fuellgraf, in a joint statement to the Butler Eagle.