Trending
BOARDMAN -- Local Republican Party leaders facing a lawsuit following an incident that occurred during a campaign visit by U.S. Senate candidate J.D. Vance to the Mahoning County Republican Party headquarters are calling the civil action "frivolous."
David and Cheryl Kissinger of Rogers filed the suit Monday in U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio. They allege that the Mahoning County Republican Party, led by Thomas P. McCabe and Robert Aurandt, along with Columbiana County GOP official David W. Johnson, violated their right to free speech.
David Kissinger was a political volunteer who reports being assaulted April 27 at Mahoning County GOP headquarters in Boardman. The suit also makes charges of battery, assault, negligence, defamation, false light and causing suffering to Kissinger and his wife.
The lawsuit claims David Kissinger was assaulted by two men when he went to the Mahoning County GOP Party headquarters in Boardman to drop off signs for GOP gubernatorial candidate Joe Blystone and senate candidate Mark Pukita. Kissinger also possessed a sign expressing "distaste for candidates who he believed had compromised the values of the Republican Party."
The incident happened while Vance, who eventually won the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, was holding a campaign event at the location.
A scuffle ensued, and police were called and responded.
The report states Kissinger suffered a cut to his hand, a cranial contusion and other acute symptoms that are continuing.
McCabe said he was taken aback by the lawsuit because the party does not endorse particular candidates and has welcomed all campaigns to participate in party events, as long as participants were not disruptive.
"I think it's frivolous, and I think it's silly because we have been more than fair to everyone," McCabe said, noting that he was speaking on behalf of the local Republican Party, including for Aurandt, who also is named as a defendant.
In a prepared statement, Johnson, Columbiana County party chairman, described the court action as "another example of a frivolous lawsuit filed for political effect by political activists."
"The Kissingers and their politically motivated attorney are about to face the full force of our legal response for filing a ridiculously frivolous federal lawsuit which has neither standing nor any merit whatsoever and which itself willfully disparages, maliciously slanders and libels, and intentionally defames, with reckless disregard and indifference, the Columbiana County Republican Chairman," Johnson said.
The plaintiffs' attorney is Sarah Kovoor, a Republican who lost her bid for a seat on the Eleventh District Court of Appeals in Tuesday's Republican primary.
In an earlier news release Kovoor stated, "What is evident by the actions ... is that the Grand Old Party has been hijacked by self-proclaimed 'outsiders' who seek nothing more than to use strong-arm tactics to place their chosen candidates in office."
The Kissingers seek damages of $25,000 and request a jury trial. The federal court docket shows the case has been assigned to Judge Charles Esque Fleming and Magistrate Jonathan D. Greenberg, but no hearings have been set.