Did the Ohio Republican Party rig the primary for John Kasich? Tom Zawistowski, President of We the People Convention believes so. Here is his press release:
Akron, OH - Tom Zawistowski, President of the We the People Convention, announced tonight that Ohio Governor John Kasich and the Ohio Republican Party (ORP) have succeeded in their goal of denying as many as one million Ohio Republican Voters their right to vote for the Republican Presidential Nominee of their choice in this year’s Republican Primary. Zawistowski confirmed that both the Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio campaigns have essentially “conceded” Ohio due to the rules passed by the ORP and the Ohio House last year, making Ohio a “winner-take-all” state. Neither campaign is spending money in Ohio and neither candidate has even visited Ohio. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump has visited the State twice and is leading in the polls, but is also not spending significant money on the race due to the unfair advantage given to Kasich by the ORP and the House.
Zawistowski explained, “Have you noticed all those TV ads in Ohio for Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio? Have you seen all their signs all over the state? Been getting their mailings? The answer is that you have not, because they do not exist. The deck is so stacked against them by the ORP and John Kasich that they all have no practical choice but to concede the state and dissapoint their voters. All those Cruz voters and Rubio voters who are so excited about their candidates, thanks to John Kasich and the Ohio Republican Party, their votes just don’t count this election. Both candidates are way behind in the polls because they decided as early as last June not to campaign in Ohio. Fortunately, according to our own polls and other national polls, Trump is leading Kasich by 6% at this point, so voters have one alternative to Kasich, although that lead may evaporate as virtually all the money donated to the Ohio Republican Party is going to support Kasich’s campaign.”
Zawistowski continued, “In the ultimate irony, Kasich and the Republican Establishment, by using a “contrived” win by Kasich in Ohio and “ideally” another winner-take-all win by Rubio in Florida to force a “brokered convention”, will have a second opportunity to invalidate tens of millions of votes by Trump, Cruz and Rubio supporters by picking another candidate as their Presidential Nominee at the Convention! This type of manipulation of the electoral process is why 75% of Republican voters on Super Tuesday said in exit polls that the Republican Leadership had betrayed them. In order to avoid this double jeopordy at the hands of John Kasich and the Ohio Republican Party, we urge Ohio voters to do two things in this primary. First, voters should not vote for John Kasich who did this to them, but instead vote for Trump, Cruz, and Rubio to prevent Kasich from winning the Primary. Second, go to http://www.ohiocitizenspac.org and locate the endorsed Ohio Republican State Central Committee member in your Senate District and vote for them, so that citizens can replace the corrupt leadership in the Ohio Republican Party who implemented this plan that denied you your opportunity to vote in this primary. That is how we restore OUR Ohio Republican Party, hold those who did this heinous act accountable, and make sure this never happens again.”
Last April 22, 2015, at Kasich’s and the ORP’s request, the Ohio House voted 23-10 to change the Ohio Primary from proportional to “winner-take-all”. This year, whichever candidate gets the most total votes wins all of Ohio’s 66 Republican Convention Delegates. This scheme intentionally made the idea of competing in Ohio financially unjustifiable for every other candidate except Kasich and therefore no other candidate is running to win in Ohio, with the exception of Donald Trump. The We the People Convention had spoken out about this move denying voters their primary vote in a Press Release last April, in which Zawistowski implored the Ohio House to vote down the measure.
