Cleveland Reporter

Ohio GOP Chairman Bob Paduchik falsely accused Jim Renacci's gubernatorial campaign of repaying a $4 million loan, when the loan was just moved between accounting years, Renacci said in an April 22 news release.

Renacci criticized Paduchik for the mistake and pointed out that Paduchik is dealing with his own "accounting scandal," concerning millions that were incorrectly reported.

"The Ohio Republican Party Chairman needs an accounting lesson," Renacci said in a statement. "Four minus four plus four equals four. No wonder the ORP's books are a mess. The establishment knows we are going to win this election and are resorting to low fake news attacks in the final days to try to distract from all of DeWine's failures."

Paduchik tweeted recently, "In 36 years of campaigning I’ve never seen a candidate repay a loan BEFORE the election."

Brad Parscale, former campaign manager for Donald Trump, tweeted, "Wow @jbalmert, the 4/21/22 report is VERY clear. You are #FakeNews. You can clearly see in yesterday's report the loan was NOT repaid. It was simply moved between accounting years. You and @Paduch should worry about ORP books, heard millions are missing?"  

Paduchik, along with party treasurer David Johnson, are embroiled in a lawsuit concerning millions of dollars that were allegedly improperly reported over the last six years, according to the Ohio Press Network. The Ohio Republican Party was also late in filing three of its four required reports with the Secretary of State. The one report filed on time includes anonymous donations totaling $439,329, despite an Ohio law that requires donations be associated with a donor when they are reported.

Renacci is a businessman and former U.S. representative for the 16th Congressional District running against DeWine, a fellow Republican, in the 2022 GOP gubernatorial primary May 3, according to his campaign biography.