On January 14, 2026, Craig Rantz, Treasurer of the Osage County Republican Committee (OCRC), personally hand-delivered to the County Clerk’s office 10 handouts for candidate packets and a letter from OCRC Chairwoman, Linda Rantz.
The Chairwoman’s letter states in the first line of the letter that OCRC “conducts a mandatory vetting process for all candidates seeking to file as Republicans for partisan political offices or Committeeman/Committeewoman positions.” [emphasis added] See the County Commission minutes from ********** where it shows that the County Clerk told the Commission that the Republican Committee’s vetting is optional.
There was no reply from the County Clerk, Brooke Dudenhoeffer, to this letter — neither acknowledgement of receipt nor objection to the content of the letter or the vetting process.
As a matter of fact, Clerk Dudenhoeffer initiated an email conversation on June 3, 2025 inquiring on her own behalf about OCRC requirements for vetting. The Clerk stated she was asking as a potential Republican candidate and she wanted to “make sure all the ducks are in a row.”
On December 12, 2025, Linda Rantz emailed Clerk Dudenhoeffer with notification that OCRC would be vetting Republican candidates again in 2026 (as they had done in 2024). The Clerk’s only question in that email thread was to ask how OCRC would “advertise” the process. Chairwoman Rantz replied that one method would be to supply the clerk’s office with an instructional handout to go in the clerk’s candidate packets. The clerk did not object or refuse and responded that she would probably not need more than 10 of the handouts.
