The Republican Party of Pennsylvania’s state committee meeting did little to settle the ongoing dispute between the county’s two competing GOP committees.

A state committee member’s report received by the political action committee United Republicans of Butler County stated that neither group’s representatives were present Friday, Feb. 3.

Butler County Republican Committee member Fred Hensel stood in for the state-recognized chairman Gary Vanasdale, and the incorporated committee’s representative, Denise Tabacchi, did not attend, according to the report.

“We could care less about whether they recognize our representative or not,” said Bill Halle, president of the Butler County Republican Committee Inc.

Halle explained that their representative did not receive formal notice from the state GOP regarding the meeting. The next step, he said, will likely involve legal action.

“There’s a lot of pressure building because the state wants to exercise control that we don’t believe they legally have,” Halle said.

Vanasdale did not return a message left Monday about the state committee meeting. His stand-in at the meeting, Hensel, declined to comment.

Jade Bowers, assistant director for the Butler County Bureau of Elections, said the situation for the county is “complicated.”

“Technically, we can’t not recognize both groups,” she said.

The elections bureau has accepted and filed the bylaws of both Vanasdale’s Butler County Republican Committee and Halle’s incorporated committee. For a time, both groups were even recognized on the county’s website.

“Then there was some back and forth about the contact information,” Bowers said, “so we removed both from the website.”

County solicitor Wil White looked to Tom King, general counsel of the state GOP, for answers.

“He said he’d look into it,” White said.

White explained that the state GOP was aware of the situation and were taking steps to formally address it.

King told the Butler Eagle he was unable to comment on the situation.

For now, Bowers said the county will continue to work with both committees until the state GOP steps in.

“Once it gets closer to election time, we’ll be hitting it hard, in terms of which party,” she said.