Ohio Republican Party deputy chair Kevin DeWine emailed county party leaders and members of the party's state central committee to combat appeals by conservative activists seeking to derail his goal of becoming party chairman.

DeWine was under attack last week by conservative activists after saying the party should shift away from talking about social issues. Leaders of the Family First political action committee and the Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes have sent emails to central committee members asking them to not vote for DeWine as chairman when they meet in December.

DeWine made his own appeal to party leaders late Friday.

"I hope you'll accept my sincere apology for the emails or phone calls you might have received about my post-election comments regarding the future of our party," DeWine wrote. "Unfortunately, some people would rather shoot first and ask questions later."   

DeWine was specifically attacked for saying the party has had a "distracting focus on social issues" in a press conference after Election Day and that it needs to "exchange a fiscal message and an economic message in for the social message that has dominated the messaging of this party for the past decade."

In his email, DeWine said the fuller context of these remarks was that the party lost its credibility on being fiscally conservative. In addition, DeWine said he's concerned the party is not talking enough about the non-social part of its agenda.

Nonetheless, DeWine argued that he is a social conservative.

"I spent eight years in the General Assembly advancing pro-family legislation such as the Defense of Marriage Act and at least six major pro-life reform bills," he wrote. "Since I became deputy chairman of this party, I've met with dozens of pro-family leaders to discuss candidate recruitment, outreach and volunteer support. Every candidate I've talked with about a possible statewide bid in 2010 has a solid record on pro-life and pro-family issues."

Fighting the perception that he is an outcast among social conservative leaders, DeWine noted Ohio Right to Life's executive director Mike Gonidakis' defense of his record on abortion and said several social conservative leaders told him they supported his view that "we cannot build a lasting majority on single issues alone."