GOP candidates seeking county party chair's resignation

A copy of the letter, which is dated Nov. 10 and addressed to Studler at the Franklin County Republican Party’s Louisville Road headquarters, was sent to The State Journal. Bennett vouched for its authenticity.

“This past election cycle saw more Republican candidates for local officers than in Franklin County history. This included two magistrate candidates, a sheriff’s candidate, judge-executive candidate and county attorney candidate,” the letter states. “Although no local candidate won their race, we saw a momentum in the local Republican party like no other, with the county attorney candidate getting 50 votes shy of 10,000 votes and losing only by 150 votes.”

Bennett lost to Democrat Max Comley by a razor-thin margin in the county attorney race. Comley claimed 10,059 votes (50%) compared to Bennett’s 9,879 votes (50%).

In the judge-executive race, Democrat Michael Mueller came away with 11,093 votes (56%) to Carroll's 8,801 (44%).

Democrat Kelly Dycus bested Grimes in the race for 3rd District magistrate by amassing 1,773 votes (55%) to Grimes’ 1,471 votes (45%).

Incumbent 4th District Magistrate Scotty Tracy kept his seat by claiming 1,614 votes (60%) compared to Sanderson’s 1,080 (40%).

The letter indicates the success of the political party “was in spite of the lack of help or effort of our chief executive officer” and goes on to add “it is our belief that little attention was given to motivating Republicans to go to the polls and vote on Nov. 8.”

It outlines seven examples in a series of events that led to the request for Studler’s resignation. They include:

• On Sunday, Oct. 23, a “Get Out the Vote” (GOTV) meeting was organized by the candidates alone. 18 candidates and volunteers attended. Voter lists with phone numbers were provided to all volunteers. You chose not to attend.

• A follow-up meeting was scheduled on Saturday, Nov. 1 — seven days before the general election. You, again, chose not to attend. You indicated that you “plan[ned] to knock doors this Saturday,” but there was no information provided to others organizing an effort to knock. Candidates were left to organize together.

• On Oct. 21, the FCRP website was not functioning. When asked, you informed multiple people that there was “limited money” and that the website had “been down for several months but it hadn’t been updated for several years before that. There was a long story which I think you know some of but it really comes down to money.” A call to the FCRP treasurer informed candidates that there was, in fact, money in the budget for website repairs. This led to the crude biographies of candidates being posted online 10 days before the election. The Franklin County Democratic Party has been posting multiple times a day for several months with complete biographies of candidates and GOTV information since July.

• In August, we saw a segment of our party split into a separate subgroup because of frustration over leadership by our county party chair. This coincided with declining attendance at all party meetings leading up to the election.

• On Nov. 5, a festival was held at Collins Lane Elementary, at which Republican candidates were advised that only campaign T-shirts would be allowed by office seekers because “no campaigning was allowed on school grounds.” A Democratic candidate was allowed to promote himself and distribute campaign material. Did you contact the school board? What is being done to expose the inside dealings of Collins Lane officials?

• On Oct. 10, you sent a text message to all local candidates discussing the regular FCRP meeting, then the arrival and speech of Sen. Rand Paul on Oct. 22. You sent a text message to all local candidates saying that the regular October party meeting “will be mainly about you [the candidate] to speak.” Not 10 minutes later, you further stated: “I’m not concerned with the [regular party] meeting as I am about people showing up to the campaign kickoff[?] on Oct. 22 and the fundraiser that evening. We want to give a good showing to Sen. Paul. My hope is that Congressman Comer will be there as well[.]”

• This summer, several members of the FCRP were exposed to private investigators coming to their door on behalf of the City of Frankfort, being bullied and asked questions simply for attending a Republican Party meeting. Nothing was done to address this. In fact, you commented that the meeting was “not fun” because we had to discuss this topic.

The letter goes on to note the importance of the Republican Party of Kentucky (RPK) bylaws, which state that the county committee may remove any executive board member without notice for misfeasance, malfeasance or nonfeasance. It defines nonfeasance as “the omission to perform a required duty or the failure to act when a duty to act existed.”

It also quotes the RPK bylaws subsection 4.02, which outlines the tasks of the county party chair, who, “serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the county party with all necessary and implied powers to carry out his/her duties.”

According to the RPK bylaws, the county party chair “is charged with overseeing an annual plan that is reflective of the county goals, priorities and financial resources” as well as “oversees the overall structure of the county party and coordination of county party activities.”

The county party chair is also responsible for ensuring the score of the organization’s county committee tasks are accomplished. This position also presides over all county meetings as well as creates and appoints special committees and serves as an ex-officio member of all special and standing county committees.

In bold, italicized and underlined script, the letter says, “The county chairman is responsible for carrying out all the mandates of the Rules.”

Per the letter, the mandates of the rules include, but are not limited to the collection and disbursement of party funds; promotion of campaigns of Republican candidates at the national, state and local levels; and building party engagement and unity.

“As candidates in any race, we know that it is incumbent upon each individual candidate to run their campaign,” the letter adds.

“However, we believe that your lack of leadership at the local level have manifested itself in the failure of the FCRP to adequately promote our local candidacies.”

Bennett, Carroll, Grimes, Marraccini and Sanderson then proceed to ask for Studler’s resignation and “the appointment by the executive board or an interim chairperson, until such time that a new chair can be appointed in the coming months.”

Studler, a local real estate appraiser and real estate broker, was elected FCRP chair in June 2021. He did not respond to The State Journal's multiple attempts for comment.

“As a local party, we need to support our elected officials, recruit conservative individuals to run for local offices, and promote pro-business, pro-American, pro-Kentuckian policies,” he said at the time. “I’ve put my name on the ballot here in the county and I am committed to growing our local party.”