rnc logo.jpg

The Republican National Committee is reassigning its communications director in Ohio.

(Rainier Ehrhardt, Associated Press)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Republican National Committee is pulling a recently hired staffer out of Ohio as a result of a personality conflict with Donald Trump's Ohio campaign manager, according to several Republican sources.

Ryan Shucard, hired a little more than two weeks ago as RNC's Ohio communications director, is being re-deployed to Pennsylvania next week after being unable to establish a productive relationship with Bob Paduchik, a longtime GOP strategist who is running Trump's Ohio campaign.

Sean Spicer, the RNC's communications director and chief strategist, called Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges on Thursday and informed him of the decision, according to Borges.

"The big takeaway was that [the RNC would] pull him out and not replace him," Borges said. "... It's not a critical person, and that's the way we look at it. So we'll move on."

The development is a setback for Republicans' efforts to set up operations in Ohio and integrate with the Trump campaign, which is working to catch up with Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's organization here. Shucard, a former congressional aide, is the second Ohio communications director to leave in the past several weeks.

Such turnover for what is such a crucial job -- communications in a huge battleground state during a presidential election -- is unusual. Shucard's predecessor in the role, Fred Brown, resigned last month for a job with the Republican Jewish Coalition. Concern about working to elect Trump factored into his decision to leave.

Tensions between Paduchik and Shucard erupted on their first day working together, according to several Republican sources. The relationship did not improve.

Spicer did not immediately respond to questions from cleveland.com. Accounts of Shucard's departure's revolve around a clash of personalities and not a broader redeployment because of some shift in national strategy.

"The RNC is committed to winning in Ohio and will only increase our staff footprint between now and Election Day," an RNC spokesman said.

Shucard did not return a message seeking comment.

Paduchik, who managed George W. Bush's successful 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns in Ohio, as well as Rob Portman's 2010 successful senatorial bid, also did not respond to a phone message seeking comment for this story.

But Seth Unger, a spokesman for the Trump campaign in Ohio, responded to questions about the situation with an emailed statement.

Ohio Republicans -- including the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee, Sen. Rob Portman's re-election campaign and the Ohio Republican Party -- are going door to door on Saturday in more than 40 locations across the state to knock on doors.

"We have a great relationship with the RNC and the Ohio Republican Party and we look forward to working closely with them to secure victory in November," Unger said.

Cleveland.com reporter Henry J. Gomez contributed to this story.