'It's chaos' | Clermont County GOP censure one of its members over shared lynching image

BATAVIA, Ohio — “It’s chaos. It’s been chaos for quite a while."

A contentious Clermont County Republican party meeting resulted in a vote to censure one of its members and to remove the chairman from his seat.

The committee voted to censure Christopher Hicks and passed a motion calling on him to resign. The vote came after Hicks posted an image on Facebook that showed a man being lynched, and compared it to his lawsuit against the committee.

Clermont County Republican Party Spokesman David Painter said Hicks was sanctioned in September for conduct in a meeting that was inappropriate to the point where he couldn’t be gaveled down.

Hicks said in a statement he will not resign.

“This is not about a picture I posted. It is about a view I espouse that, in the Clemont GOP we must end cronyism, and patronage in favor of new talent, principle, and competition,” Hicks said. “And, once again, they chose secrecy and shadows because they fear letting me fairly defend myself.”

Hicks pointed out in his statement, not everyone was in attendance for this vote against him. Members said the committee did have a quorum, which was all they needed to vote.

Some within the party said Hicks has become a distraction.

“It’s not fair that we got dragged in as members and be viewed by everybody else because of a posting that Mr. Hicks has posted because it’s been dragged into the committee. It’s not fair on us,” said committee member Luiza McQueen.

McQueen disagrees with Hicks using the image of a man being lynched to get his point across but said he has a right to post what he wants on his page.

She said the arguments between Hicks and Chairman Jeff Corcoran have prevented the party from focusing on issues.

“We’ve spent six months focusing on that member [Hicks] instead of focusing on the candidates and that’s a big problem,” McQueen said.

“We’re completely ineffective. We’re not doing anything for candidates or for the constituents so that kind of negates our purpose,” said committee member Tina Tolin.

McQueen called for a motion to remove Corcoran as chair for the rest of his term at the end of the meeting, but committee members voted to keep him in his seat.

Painter said the night was emotional and was filled with people speaking with conviction.

“This is what the deliberative process looks like and how it’s carried out. Sometimes it’s not succinct and perfect,” he said. “At the end of the night the vote was to confirm Mr. Corcoran in his position and to continue on.”

Corcoran along with other leadership members talked about Hick’s lawsuit against them. Corcoran said Hicks appealed the judge’s motion to reconsider his decision on the preliminary injunction. Corcoran said he expects the court to reject Hicks’s appeal.

“The filing of the appeal was premature. It was not a final appeal to order. We would expect that within 2-3 weeks from now the Court of Appeals will reject the appeal,” he said.

Corcoran said when it comes to Hicks attending meetings the judge said the committee has the authority to run their meetings as they please as long as they are not violating a statute, since they are a private entity.

Hicks says Corcoran has tried to have law enforcement remove him from attending meetings. Some members raised concerns that not allowing Hicks to attend meetings was a violation of their constitution and bylaws.

“How we run our business is up to us and the courts will not get involved,” Corcoran said. “We run our business by saying you’re not invited here, get out. We can do that and the police will support us.”

Corcoran said the legal issues with Hicks could be resolved by the end of the year.

McQueen and Tolin said they would like to get back to focusing on their constituents.

“When they see that the people in the committee are fighting amongst themselves I think that they lose faith and they lose hope,” McQueen said.