Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose says a constitutional amendment he is pushing would prevent aspects of the biggest corruption and money-laundering scandal in the state’s history.
But he said Tuesday he did not recall speaking with some of the main figures in the conspiracy as it reached its peak in 2019. He also provided no evidence — despite recent statements — that he spoke out against the corruption deal or its leader before its leader was arrested in July 2020.
LaRose met with reporters after debate on NBC4 station WCMH in Columbus about the merits of Issue 1, a measure on the Aug. 8 ballot that would make it much more tough for voters to initiate amendments to the Ohio Constitution.
This would make it much more tough for voters to submit amendments to the ballot without making it harder for Ohio’s divided congressional district to do so. Number 1 It would also raise the threshold for passing an amendment from the current 50% to 60%, regardless of who initiated it.
The measure would radically change the reform-era solution advocated by former President Theodore Roosevelt 111 years ago at the Constitutional Convention in Ohio.
LaRose and his Republican allies in the gerrymandering Legislature say Issue 1 is needed to protect the state constitution from nefarious outside influences. But critics say they are simply trying to block amendments they don’t like — primarily those protecting abortion rights and trying to limit extreme gerrymandering of Ohio’s congressional and congressional districts.
Experts say gerrymandering in the state contributes to public corruption by perpetuating unaccountable one-party rule. And when it comes to corruption, Ohio’s state government has he certainly had his struggles in recent years.
But LaRose argues that Issue 1 would have prevented an aspect of the ongoing scandal that has engulfed Capitol Square for at least FBI arrested then-House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, and several others in July 2020. In that case, Akron-based FirstEnergy poured more than $60 million into black market investing groups to make Householder the speaker and pass and protect a $1.3 billion taxpayer bailout, most of which was intended for FirstEnergy.
At the end of June, Householder was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for extortion, and former state Republican Party chairman Matt Borges was sentenced to five years.
IN April edition on The Columbus Dispatch and again in a radio interview in delayed June, LaRose argued that Issue 1 would derail Householder’s plan at the end of the scandal, which was to exploit municipal money to pass a constitutional amendment changing state term limits so Householder could remain speaker for another 16 years.
LaRose did not explain how making it harder for voters to initiate a constitutional amendment to the Legislature would prevent the House speaker from initiating and passing such an amendment. The only major hurdle Householder would face is securing 60 percent of the vote — a goal more achievable for a corrupt lawmaker backed by tens of millions of dollars in dim money from interested utilities than for a group of like-minded voters.
Until Tuesday, LaRose had not commented on his role in the scandal.
His name came up several times during Householder’s six-week trial earlier this year, and messages from some of the key players suggested that LaRose — the state’s top elections official — had at least talked to them about it.
The bailout was so unpopular that dim money groups took out ads giving lawmakers “cover” to vote for it. And when it passed, the groups almost immediately began collecting signatures to repeal it — “citizen veto” that’s what one of the assistant U.S. attorneys prosecuting Householder called it.
As head of the Ohio Ballot Board, LaRose played a role in the repeal election, and Borges, the now-convicted former Republican Party chairman, claimed at the time that he was talking to the secretary of state about repeal efforts.
“LaRose expects us to publicly support him,” Borges said, according to messages shown during the trial.
Borges said LaRose expected to be asked to recuse himself over alleged conflicts of interest. LaRose ultimately approved the language of the repeal petition.
Prosecutors also presented a text message from then-FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones to an executive at a related company as the fight to gather repeal signatures reached its peak. In total, the companies spent more than $36 million to successfully block repeal efforts by running false, xenophobic ads and hiring people to harass those circulating petitions.
Jones has not been charged in connection with the scandal, but court documents show his lawyers say he is the subject of an ongoing investigation.
In his text message, Jones said LaRose and Householder were providing the FirstEnergy CEO with “private” information about a signature-gathering effort to put a repeal of the fraudulent bailout on the ballot. LaRose gave utility tycoons reason to be hopeful, Jones said.
“For what it’s worth, LaRose and Householder think the game is over,” Jones told the other executive. “But that’s a private conversation, unless they told you the same thing. And Householder has a ‘quick fix’ anyway.”
In any case, the game was over. The repeal attempt soon died.
Asked Tuesday what he discussed with FirstEnergy’s CEO at the height of the scandal, LaRose called it “interesting question.” He then returned to claims in his Dispatch column that Issue 1 would have stopped Householder’s plan to become “speaker for life.”
At the time, LaRose said, “I don’t remember every conversation I had. I can tell you a lot of names come up in these lawsuits. I didn’t do anything that anyone would suggest was inappropriate in connection with this.”
Asked a second time what he and Jones talked about, LaRose said, “Again, I don’t recall every conversation I’ve ever had. And sometimes CEOs like to brag, ‘Oh, I talked to this person,’ or ‘I talked to that person.’ I don’t recall having any specific conversation with Jones or anyone else at that company at that point, and, again, I don’t know exactly what he’s talking about at all.”
In June, just a day before Householder was sentenced in Cincinnati, LaRose went on the radio and said he had always been anti-Householder.
“I mean, the guy turned out to be a fraud,” LaRose told 700 WLW Scott Sloan“And that shouldn’t surprise anyone, by the way — anyone who knew him.”
After Tuesday’s debate, LaRose was asked if he ever publicly condemned Householder or the bailout conspiracy while it was happening.
“Oh yeah,” the state’s top election official said. “You know this guy was as corrupt as they come, and he was in his first term as speaker, got kicked out, and then came back. The people in the House who decided he was going to be speaker should have known that.”
When asked for evidence that he spoke during the criminal conspiracy that led to the passage of House Bill 6, LaRose replied, “Against House Bill 6 or against Householder as speaker?”
Asked if the two weren’t the same thing, LaRose said: “Sure. But I’ve said very publicly that Householder is not a great guy. I don’t know what else you’re looking for.”
His office has produced no evidence that LaRose opposed the former chairman or the bailout, as misleading, donor-funded ads flooded Ohio airlines — even as a major donor claimed to be receiving “private” information about the petition from LaRose.
On Wednesday, a Google search revealed actions LaRose took against Householder — the day he was arrested. That’s when he addressed 19 “apparent or alleged violations” of campaign finance laws by Householder to the Ohio Elections Commission, WCPO in Cincinnati reported.
LaRose said Tuesday that he did not ““Someone even suggested it” that he did something wrong in the bailout scandal. But at Borges’ sentencing — just two days after LaRose went on the radio and said everyone knew Householder was a fraud — one of the prosecutors in the extortion case he suggested in an open court that someone had acted improperly.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Singer decried the fact that the bribery statute is still in effect and many unindicted participants in the corruption scandal continue to operate in Capitol Square.
And he said: “It’s interesting that some people are contributing to (Householder) after the fact. So many people knew what was going on in real time and did nothing about it. Not only did they do nothing about it, they helped facilitate it.”
