Last week, after Mark Souder distanced himself from the Matt Kelty campaign and further amplified the schism in the Allen County GOP, Chairman Steve Shine announced plans to form a committee to seek ways to reconcile the warring factions.

This comes, of course, after Shine dissolved a previous committee he had formed to help mend fences after that committee split apart over the Kelty campaign.

The local GOP finds itself in a situation similar to the national Democratic Party in the 1970s and ’80s, some of it an unintended consequence of the positive work Shine has accomplished. Just like the Democrats of the McGovern-Carter-Mondale era, the local GOP has become a bigger tent, embracing more diversity and welcoming women and minorities – largely at Shine’s urging. At the same time, the weakness of the Democrats at county-level offices has brought into the GOP fold numerous moderates who could be Dems elsewhere.

The result: A party with people who hold a wide range of beliefs that sometimes conflict. Those conflicts can be incendiary when they pit a popular candidate on the far right with one closer toward the middle. It happened in 1999, when moderate Linda Buskirk defeated the more right-wing Joe Squadrito, and it happened again this year, even before Kelty’s campaign finance problems produced criminal charges. This year, the far right won in the primary against the more progressive-minded Nelson Peters.

The local GOP includes a number of progressive, emerging leaders who want to see a more vibrant city. They recognize that in today’s economy, government must take a lead role in economic development and job creation. This faction did battle against the GOP old guard early in the decade when it advocated for a downtown arena while the establishment GOP wanted to expand the Memorial Coliseum. The progressives lost that round, but they came back and unseated an astonishing three County Council incumbents, including a former mayor, in the 2002 primary.

The local GOP also includes traditional conservative Republicans who oppose abortion and, like Ronald Reagan, think the government they themselves form is inherently evil. They still believe that government should not be in the development business and, like classic conservatives, fight change.

These conflicts are erupting because under Shine, the local Republican Party has become, well, more democratic. More accurately, Shine has allowed party members to decide who runs and wins primaries, in opposition to his predecessor, the late Orvas Beers, whose geniality belied his more autocratic reign as party chairman.

Perhaps some Republicans want a more Beers-like chairman who single-handedly sets the agenda. Yet the one time Shine publicly gave preference to a candidate in a contested primary, supporting Karen Richards in the 2002 prosecutor’s race, he was lambasted by numerous party members.

Rather than try to bring the party together and reach out to the more moderate Republicans and gain the support he will need to win, Kelty and his camp have inexplicably sent out messages that he doesn’t want them, even making fun of them. Last week’s intolerant attack ad blasting Democrat Tom Henry for daring to author an anti-discrimination law protecting gays, lesbians and bisexuals only deepened the schism.

As with many internal party squabbles, the Democrats largely addressed their own big-tent splits by moving closer to the political center, capped with the election of Bill Clinton (yes, he was and is a moderate) as president. Eventually, the local GOP will likely also move away from the fringes and closer to the political center – after the slings and arrows have inflicted enough damage.