Matt Borges

Matt Borges and members of the Ohio delegation celebrate after they cast their votes during the second day of the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday, July 19, 2016.

(Lisa DeJong, The Plain Dealer)

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Donald Trump's Ohio campaign manager on Saturday renounced its relationship with the Ohio Republican Party's top official, laying bare the long-simmering tensions over Trump's candidacy within the state GOP.

Bob Paduchik, a longtime campaign operative in Ohio, sent a two-page letter to the state GOP's central committee members on Saturday saying Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges no longer has a relationship with the campaign. The letter accuses Borges of exaggerating his relationship with Trump in media interviews, and undermining Trump's efforts to win in Ohio in order to advance his own candidacy to replace Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.

Paduchik writes that he spoke with Trump about Borges on Thursday, when Trump made a pair of Ohio campaign stops, and describes Trump as being "very disappointed with Borges' duplicity."

"It's no great secret that Chairman Borges was never fully on board, but his actions over the past week demonstrate that his loyalties to Governor John Kasich's failed Presidential campaign eclipse his responsibility as chairman of the Ohio Republican Party," Paduchik wrote. "The chairman is also apparently driven by an insatiable need for publicity."

(Scroll down to read the full letter, or click here for a PDF.)

The Columbus Dispatch first reported on Paduchik's letter.

Paduchik also included a few articles from Ohio media outlets, including a Thursday story from cleveland.com, in which Borges described advice he had given to Trump about how to win Ohio and said he was unsure of whether he would vote for Trump.

In a statement, Borges said: "I won't let a staffer's ego get in the way of us doing all we can to win elections up and down the ballot this year."

Asked if Paduchik would make any additional comments, a Trump campaign spokesman said the letter speaks for itself.

How does this affect Republicans?

The letter is a remarkable display of disunity between a GOP presidential campaign and the state party in Ohio, a key battleground state for Republicans, just 24 days before the election. Polling suggests Trump is competing better in Ohio than he is in other battleground states, although Clinton holds a narrow lead in an average of recent polls.

Matt Cox, a Cleveland-based Republican political consultant who has worked with Paduchik in the past, said the letter puts Republican operatives in the awkward position of trying to avoid picking sides in a fight between the state party and the top of the GOP ticket.

"This is unprecedented," Cox said. "No one knows how to handle this on a human, daily-interaction level with this campaign. So to throw this in there 24 days out, I don't know how anyone can deal with it properly, and in any respect, it's not going to help elect Republicans."

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Cuyahoga County Republican Party Chairman Rob Frost issued a statement on Saturday referencing Paduchik's letter.

"As a leader of the local GOP and a member of the state committee that elects our state chairman I understand that, despite the insinuation by a top Trump campaign staffer in Ohio, our party is providing the necessary resources in support of the Presidential campaign," Frost said. "It appears that we will be addressing this internally as a party organization, and I therefore consider it inappropriate to comment further at this time."

After the release of Paduchik's letter, two members of the party's state central committee on Saturday issued statements praising Borges.

Jim Simon, a Summit County committeeman, said: "This has been a difficult and challenging election cycle, unlike any I've ever seen and Matt has handled it perfectly. Drawing fire away from our candidates and officeholders is the chairman's job, which is something I'm sure [Paduchik] doesn't understand."

In another statement, Jo Ann Davidson, a former Ohio House speaker and the state's national GOP committewoman said: "We are poised to win elections up and down the ballot for Republicans this year in Ohio, just like we did in 2014 under Chariman Borges' leadership."

What is the state party's role in the election?

While it is a separate operation, the Ohio Republican Party has been working closely with the Republican National Committee, Trump and other candidates throughout this election season, with Borges and Paduchik holding weekly meetings.

The state party has and will sent out targeted mail encouraging early voters to elect Republicans this November. It will provide lawyers and other employees for "election day operations" -- staffers who stand by on Election Day in the event of voting irregularities. It also employs field organizers assigned throughout the state to work on the RNC/Trump joint campaign.

Who are Paduchik and Borges?

Bob Paduchik

Paduchik and Borges both have worked in Ohio politics for years, although generally not closely together.

Paduchik, who prefers to keep a low media profile, ran George W. Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns in Ohio.Borges previously worked as an aide to Dick Cheney, Bush's vice-president, from 2001 to 2007.

Paduchik oversaw Sen. Rob Portman's first successful campaign for the office in 2010, a year that Borges ran the election campaign for Ohio Auditor Dave Yost.

Kasich helped install Borges as state party chairman in 2013. In July 2015, state GOP committee members voted to elect him to a second two-year term without opposition.

Borges has not been shy about criticizing Trump. Last Saturday, he told state party officials they would face no ramifications from rescinding endorsements from Trump in the aftermath of the release of a 2005 video showing Trump making vulgar and sexually aggressive comments about women.

In a Saturday interview with clevleand.com, Borges complained the letter was a distraction and detracted from the party's efforts to help deliver Ohio for Trump and other Republicans this November.

"There's no worse way to be spending my Saturday 30 days from an election that (we) absolutely should have won this year than to be spending 100 percent of my time on the phone or on emails or answering questions or [granting interviews] on a topic like this that isn't helping us advance the ball," Borges said at the time.

And later that day, two high-ranking Ohio GOP elected officials -- U.S. Sen. Rob Portman and Auditor Dave Yost -- revoked their support of Trump. Kasich issued a lengthy statement criticizing Trump, and definitively stated that he will not vote for him.

Other top-ranking Ohio Republican officials in varying degrees -- running the gamut from reluctant, enthusiastic or ambivalent -- remain generally supportive of Trump.

On Friday while in Youngstown for a debate between Portman and his Democratic challenger, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, Borges joked to a reporter about national media coverage identifying him as a possible candidate for RNC chairman. But he has not publicly commented his interest in the job.

Trump also has lashed out at other high-ranking Republicans recently as his campaign has faltered, most notably repeatedly criticizing U.S. Speaker Paul Ryan this week for not being sufficiently supportive of his candidacy.

A spokesman for the Republican National Committee has not returned a message seeking comment for this story.

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

An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Jim Simon represents Central Ohio on the Ohio Republican Party's central committee.