Ohio secretary of state Frank LaRose hits former house speaker with five new campaign finance violations

(Justin Merriman/Getty Images)

By Collin Cunningham

(COLUMBUS, Ohio) Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose leveled new campaign finance charges against former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, on Friday, accusing the controversial representative of accepting five different campaign contributions that exceeded donor limits as specified in state law, WKSU reports.

Between Jan. 1, 2019 and March 17, 2020, the letter from LaRose's office alleges that Householder's campaign accepted more than $32,000 in excess donations between five separate donors, two individuals and three organizations. One of those individuals is Juan Cespedes, a FirstEnergy lobbyist who was arrested along with Householder in July 2020 on corruption charges that alleged the former speaker had accepted $61 million in bribes from the Akron energy company.

LaRose's letter states that Cespedes donated to Householder's campaign twice, in June of 2019 and then again in November of the same year, for a total of $14,292, which was $995.65 in excess of the legal campaign contribution limit. The letter mentions four other anonymous entities, who all contributed a total of $31,068.95 than the campaign should have accepted under state law. At the time, Cespedes plead guilty, while Householder plead not guilty.

"Make no mistake. My team will remain vigilant in our reviews of all campaign finance records, no matter who you are," LaRose said in a statement released last Friday, according to Limaohio.com.

These five new charges join the 162 similar ones that LaRose filed against Householder in July 2020, after a federal investigation probe into the former speaker's campaign financing found evidence of white-collar foul play. In his statement, the secretary of state also said that he would be choosing to withdraw a number of those previous charges, as they can be chalked up to permissible PAC contributions, and not donations from corporate entities.

"The hits just keep on coming," the statement continued. "These alleged repeated violations by Rep. Householder aren’t just a violation of state law, it’s a direct insult against the people of his district and the people of Ohio.”

On Wednesday, the Ohio Senate voted to remove the controversial $1 billion nuclear energy bailout that led to the investigation probe that still surrounds Householder in the first place. The bailout funds would have gone to FirstEnergy's two Ohio nuclear power plants as part of House Bill 6, first passed in 2019 after the company, since renamed Energy Harbor, filed for bankruptcy in 2018.

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