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In Case You Missed It, Cleveland.com today reported on repeated refusals by House Speaker Bob Cupp and Republican politicians to comment on Larry Householder’s expulsion from the Ohio House as Ohioans remain on the hook for his $60,000 salary. Householder was arrested more than 300 days ago amid allegations he took a $60 million bribe in exchange for raising the cost of energy bills for Ohioans. 

“Since the beginning of this year’s legislative session, reporters have asked House Speaker Bob Cupp on a regular basis about whether GOP lawmakers will expel state Rep. Larry Householder, who’s charged with overseeing the largest bribery scheme in state history. Every week, Cupp offers an (non-)answer similar to the one he gave Wednesday: ‘I have nothing further to report,’” writes Jeremy Pelzer for Cleveland.com.  

Despite his arrest, the federal charges against him and Republican claims they’d like to see Householder expelled, the former Speaker remains in office with no efforts taken to remove him from office.

Read the story from Cleveland.com HERE and more below: 

• Since the beginning of this year’s legislative session, reporters have asked House Speaker Bob Cupp on a regular basis about whether GOP lawmakers will expel state Rep. Larry Householder, who’s charged with overseeing the largest bribery scheme in state history.
• Every week, Cupp offers an (non-)answer similar to the one he gave Wednesday: “I have nothing further to report.”
• It’s not because Householder’s fate isn’t on lawmakers’ minds, as Cupp said when pressed by a reporter. “Members talk about it a lot to each other,” he said. “But there’s nothing further to report.”
• If there’s all this talk among lawmakers, is there any consensus emerging about Householder’s fate?
• “I have nothing further to report,” Cupp said.
• When asked why he has nothing further to report, and why he’s withholding such information from the public, Cupp replied: “I’m not withholding anything from the public. I don’t have anything to report.”
• The House speaker was similarly tight-lipped when asked whether he saw any issue with Householder continuing to draw a legislative salary of more than $60,000 per year.
• Householder was arrested last July and accused of using more than $60 million in bribe money from FirstEnergy Corp. entities to secure passage of House Bill 6, which included a $1 billion-plus ratepayer bailout for two Northern Ohio nuclear power plants.

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Columbus, OH — Yesterday, the U.S. House passed legislation establishing an independent, nonpartisan commission to investigate the January 6 terror attack, with only two of 11 Ohio Republicans voting in favor of the commission and the other nine voting to sweep the attack under the rug. 

Despite Republicans trying to look the other way, Ohioans deserve to know what happened on January 6th and why. Keeping Ohioans and Americans safe shouldn’t be political. Any Republicans opposing this commonsense, independent commission are further perpetuating the Big Lie and are also playing politics with our national security.  

• Now that the legislation heads to the Senate, Ohio Republican candidates for Senate should be on the record: Are you for or against the January 6th commission?

On Wednesday, a U.S. Capitol Police officer wrote a letter expressing disappointment with Republican leadership for opposing the nonpartisan commission and earlier this week, the family of a fallen officer released a statement in support of the commission. Republican candidates have employed a lot of rhetoric around their support of law enforcement, but their position on the January 6 commission will speak louder than their words ever could. 

The January 6 commission was established following a bipartisan compromise between House Democrats and Republicans. The commission would be modeled after the successful 9/11 Commission and would comprise five Republicans and five Democrats. 

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In Case You Missed It, Julie Carr Smyth and Dan Sewell of the AP reported today on the increasingly desperate and embarrassing battle in Ohio’s Republican Senate primary for the support of one Florida resident. Instead of fighting for the support of Ohio voters and running campaigns based on the needs and interests of Ohioans, Republican candidates are instead speaking to an audience of one: Donald Trump. 

While these candidates trip all over themselves for Trump’s endorsement, increasingly making their campaigns about personal attacks on fellow Republicans and issues way outside the mainstream for Ohio voters, Trump refuses to endorse any of them despite several desperate public pleas from each candidate. 

“While Ohioans are worried about taking care of their families, making ends meet and keeping themselves healthy amid a global pandemic, Republican Senate candidates are playing out their fantasies of appearing on the Apprentice. Democrats are laser focused on the issues that matter to Ohioans and creating a fairer, more prosperous state. Republicans are chasing the approval of a Florida resident who’s just not that into them,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party. 

Meanwhile, as Smyth and Sewell point out in their story, no one is seeking the endorsement of embattled Gov. Mike DeWine, who sees himself increasingly weakened by the intra-party fighting within his own party. Trump seems more concerned with securing a primary challenge to DeWine than any of the Republicans running for Senate. 

Read the story from AP HERE and more below: 

• One candidate has been circulating a who’s-done-more-for-Donald Trump scorecard. Footage of a waving Trump was dropped without context into a TV ad for another. A photo posted to Twitter gushes over the ex-president and his wife stopping by a third candidate’s fundraiser just to say hello.
• The U.S. Senate primary in Ohio is still a year away, but Republican contenders already are working furiously to cast themselves as Trump’s favorite in the open race. That work can be awkward and far from subtle. 
• But despite all his pride in playing kingmaker, Trump has been reticent in his endorsements — in some cases even waiting until after the primary to give his approval. That leaves the field in Ohio positioning frantically in hopes of being deemed the Trumpiest of them all.
• But no endorsement has followed and the campaigning for Trump’s affection has continued. Earlier this month, an outside group, the USA Freedom Fund, linked Mandel to Trump in a TV commercial aired during Kentucky Derby coverage. It showed Trump speaking at a pre-2016 rally, even though Mandel was nowhere in sight. The spot also attacked Vance for past criticisms of Trump.
• However, Gary Abernathy, a former newspaper publisher in southern Ohio who had worked for the state GOP and for Portman, sees peril in that GOP strategy.
• “The danger is painting yourself into all-in on Trump right now and then you have to sell yourself in the general election,” Abernathy said. “How much of how you tie yourself to Trump now are you going to to wish you could untie a little bit? The general election is a different story.”
• Notably, the candidates don’t appear to be hustling for an endorsement from Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who has bipartisan popularity. The governor has led the state’s response to the pandemic more aggressively than Trump did nationally as president, drawing backlash in his own party.

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In Case You Missed It, Ohio Democratic State Reps. Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) and Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland) re-introduced anti-corruption legislation that would shine a light on dark money in Ohio and make political spending more transparent. Reps. Russo and Sweeney’s bill, supported by 24 fellow House Democrats, follows the HB 6 scandal that led to the arrests and federal charges against several top-level Ohio Republicans who allegedly took bribes to raise Ohioans’ energy bills.

“Mired down by corruption scandals, Ohio Republicans’ answer is to clamp down on Ohioans’ right to hold them accountable. Meanwhile, Ohio Democrats are working to empower Ohioans and crack down on corruption. Democrats are offering a better way forward after decades of one-party Republican rule,” said Matt Keyes, spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

While Ohio Democrats are taking action to crack down on taxpayer-funded corruption, Ohio Republicans are instead vocally championing legislation that rolls back Ohioans’ most fundamental rights, including the right to vote and the right to protest. 

Read the story from Ohio Capital Journal HERE and more below:

• State Reps. Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington, and Bride Rose Sweeney, D-Cleveland, have reintroduced a bill nicknamed the “Ohio Anti-Corruption Act.” Two-dozen Democrats in the Ohio House of Representatives have co-sponsored the bill.
• The House Bill 6 scandal, which led to the July 2020 arrests of House Speaker Larry Householder and several other Republican operatives, helped draw attention to a noteworthy exception in Ohio’s campaign finance laws.
• Nonprofit 501(c)(4) organizations, known as “social welfare groups,” are not required to report their donors. 
• This was a key component to the House Bill 6 scheme, prosecutors have alleged, with corporate money being funneled through a 501(c)(4) group secretly controlled by Householder. This money then supported the 2019 passage of a $1.3 billion nuclear bailout bill and was also used to defeat a ballot initiative to overturn the bill.
• Householder, a Glenford Republican, awaits trial on corruption charges. As the Ohio Capital Journal has reported, two Householder associates have already pleaded guilty — as did Generation Now, the dark money group at the center of the HB 6 scheme.
• The House Majority Caucus has declined to take a vote to expel the former speaker from the chamber.

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In Case You Missed It, Politico did a deep dive into Big Tech billionaire Peter Thiel and his scheme to prop up his Silicon Valley cronies, including J.D. Vance. Thiel, who has been linked to many prominent far-right and white nationalist leaders, is now using his vast wealth to create a new political class of politicians made up of his fellow Big Tech elite.

“Thiel’s private power-brokering illustrated his growing influence in Republican politics, but his clout has become even clearer in the weeks since. Thiel has given a pair of $10 million donations to separate super PACs that are backing Vance and Arizona Republican Blake Masters, another protégé poised to launch a Senate campaign. The contributions are the most ever to outside groups supporting single Senate candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that tracks political giving,” writes Alex Isenstadt for Politico.

Politico’s article comes as Vance announced he’s ‘exploring a run’ for U.S. Senate last week, propped up by a $10 million donation from Thiel. While Vance tries to keep up his populist facade in part by railing against Big Tech, he’s clearly at the center of an effort by Thiel to create a new political class of Big Tech elites.

Read the story from Politico HERE and more below:

• Ohio Republican J.D. Vance didn’t go it alone when he trekked to Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort for a meeting with the former president earlier this spring — the soon-to-be Senate candidate was accompanied by his mentor and political benefactor Peter Thiel.
• Thiel, a tech billionaire and longtime Trump backer, had arranged the sit-down, which came five years after Vance declared that he had “no love” for Trump.
• Thiel’s private power-brokering illustrated his growing influence in Republican politics, but his clout has become even clearer in the weeks since. Thiel has given a pair of $10 million donations to separate super PACs that are backing Vance and Arizona Republican Blake Masters, another protégé poised to launch a Senate campaign. The contributions are the most ever to outside groups supporting single Senate candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that tracks political giving.
• The tech investor’s profile in donor circles grew during the 2016 election, when he contributed around $1.5 million to pro-Trump outfits and spoke at the Republican National Convention.
• But Thiel’s latest contributions stem not only from his growing political involvement but from his closeness with Vance and Masters. Vance became acquainted with Thiel when he was at Yale Law School and then went to work for Thiel in Silicon Valley; Thiel later became an investor in Vance’s venture capital firm. 
• Within Republican circles, Thiel is seen as an unconventional donor. Unlike other major givers, he lacks a singular political adviser or gatekeeper for candidates looking to court him.
• It’s unclear whether Thiel’s $10 million donations are a one-time investment — or if more money is on the way.

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