With less than a week to Election Day, the Butler County Republican Committee — one of the factions — filed a lawsuit against the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, saying it is the legitimate version of the Butler County group.

The lawsuit filed Oct. 31 in the Butler County Court of Common Pleas seeks a declaratory judgment to enforce a set of bylaws for the plaintiffs say the state GOP have refused to honor.

Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are identified as the Republican committee, its co-chair Erik Edwards, its president Carol Christner and its vice president Joy Snyder. Representing them is attorney Greg Teufel of the Pittsburgh-based firm OGC Law.

Before the PA GOP removed Gary Vanasdale as the chair of a different Butler County Republican Committee in September 2023, the state organization formally recognized Vanasdale’s committee as the legitimate Butler County Republican Committee in a May 2023 letter to county Commissioner Leslie Osche.

The clarification from the state came less than a week to the May primary election.

In the letter dated Wednesday, May 10, executive director of the Republican Party of Pennsylvania Angela Alleman said Vanasdale was recognized as chairman by the state party after a credentials hearing Aug. 18, 2022, and has been the chairman ever since — despite any controversy within the county.

In a news release about the lawsuit, lawyer Gregory Teufel, who represents the plaintiffs, said Vanasdale was “incorrectly” appointed in the first place.

“For over a year, the BCRC has attempted to resolve these issues without trading barbs with the other Republican groups in Butler County in the local paper or on social media, but it is now time that the citizens of Butler County know the truth,” Teufel said. “The BCRC has not deviated from the mission that the Republican voters set out to accomplish in the May 2022 primary, to make the change they wanted to see in Butler County, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and hopefully beyond that into our great nation.”

Pennsylvania GOP solicitor Tom King, who is also an attorney in Butler, defended the state party’s actions. He and his law firm, Dillon McCandless King Coulter & Graham, will defend the state GOP in this suit.

“We value all Republican voters and candidates,” King said. “I'm sorry they saw the need to sue. We don’t believe it has merit.”

According to Teufel, Gary Vanasdale was installed as chairman at a reorganizational meeting in July 2022 where new bylaws were adopted.

According to the lawsuit, Vanasdale’s position as chairman was to be temporary and only for the purposes of that one meeting. He was supposed to be installed as a co-chairman with Michael J. Oehling, Teufel said.

At that July 14, 2022, meeting, 85 of the 127 members of the committee members elected in the May 2022 primary election voted to adopt new bylaws and to operate the group as a nonprofit domestic corporation instead of an unincorporated association, he continued.

The newly adopted bylaws allowed for a president, vice president, two co-chairs and two vice-chairs.

“We set up our bylaws and organization so that all committee people have a voice, not just the executive group,” Carol Christner, current president of the committee said in a news release.

Teufel said the transition never happened, creating a split.

The state GOP would go on to recognize Vanasdale as the only chairman, a decision that Teufel said goes against the group’s adopted bylaws.

“The PA GOP implicitly recognized the validity of the July 2022 reorganizational meeting by its recognition of Mr. Vanasdale as a Chair or the Chair of the BCRC for over a year,” reads the lawsuit. “If the PA GOP believes that the July 2022 reorganizational meeting was for some reason invalid, then Mr. Vanasdale would never have become a Chair or the Chair of the BCRC.”

To curb the chaos, the state GOP planned to hold a reorganizational meeting for the Butler County Republican Committee on Sept. 25, where it would elect a new chairman, vice chairman, and other officials under the guidance of a designee: Lawrence Tabas, the state Republican Party chairman.

The meeting was scheduled after the state GOP announced on Sept. 8 that Gary Vanasdale could no longer be chairman of the Butler County Republican Committee, a decision that followed a July hearing to investigate 19 complaints against him, including his wife Jennifer Gilliland Vanasdale’s decision to run for Butler County District Attorney as an independent candidate. Gilliland Vanasdale fell to Republican incumbent Richard Goldinger in the November election.

Gary Vanasdale could not immediately be reached for comment. In September, he called the PA GOP investigation a “sham.”

“They wanted me to control my wife and instruct her not to run for District Attorney. I don’t believe any man should control their wife. And I certainly am not going to tell my wife what to do,” he said.

The Butler Eagle reached out to Jennifer Gilliland Vanasdale for comment, but she declined, saying she was “not involved in this matter.”

The meeting would have chosen someone to replace Gary Vanasdale.

Two days before the meeting, it was canceled in an email.

“Unfortunately, we have been advised that a number of Butler County Committee members and former members continue to be unwilling to resolve conflicts and intend to hinder and obstruct those that wish to,” Alleman said at that time.

The faction of the Butler County Republican Party represented by Teufel were among those to protest the meeting. An announcement to “formally protest the reorganization meeting” came prior to the state’s cancellation.

Since then, the state GOP has not announced who will lead the Butler County Republican Committee.

On Nov. 6, the Butler County Bureau of Elections website lists the contact information for Michele Mustello, who is referred to as a designated representative.

Butler Eagle staff writer Steve Ferris contributed to this report.