DAY SEVENTEEN: Frank LaRose Still Refusing to Follow the Rules, Disclose His “Highly Unusual” $250,000 Loan
December 1, 2023
Mother Jones: “Frank LaRose is responsible for overseeing state election laws. But as he seeks the Republican nomination for a US Senate seat in 2024, LaRose has not complied with a federal law requiring US House and Senate candidates to submit information about their income and assets.”
Columbus, OH – Mother Jones is out with a new report about Frank LaRose being seventeen days past the U.S. Senate Ethics Committee’s deadline to file his personal financial disclosure – 106 days past LaRose’s initial August deadline. After mocking his opponents by claiming to be the only “thousandaire” in the race, LaRose continues to avoid questions about loaning $250,000 to his campaign which experts note is “highly unusual.”
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Mother Jones: Ohio GOP Senate Candidate Frank LaRose Just Blew Another Deadline to Disclose His Finances
Abby Vesouli
November 30, 2023
- As Ohio’s Secretary of State, Frank LaRose is responsible for overseeing state election laws. But as he seeks the Republican nomination for a US Senate seat in 2024, LaRose has not complied with a federal law requiring US House and Senate candidates to submit information about their income and assets. And this has heightened a mystery about a $250,000 loan LaRose, who characterizes himself as an everyman of modest means, made to his campaign in September.
- The 1978 US Ethics in Government Act requires candidates to file financial disclosure forms within 30 days of making their candidacy official. LaRose entered the competitive Senate race on July 17, giving him until August 16 to comply. On August 9, LaRose was granted a 90-day extension, requiring he submit the filing “no later than November 14, 2023.”
- As of November 30—106 days from his initial deadline—LaRose has still not submitted the legally required financial information to the US Senate.
- LaRose is running what he calls a “thousandaire” campaign against two wealthy challengers: Bernie Moreno, a luxury car dealer, and state senator Matt Dolan, a scion of the family that owns the Cleveland Guardians.
- LaRose’s current finances don’t appear to have improved substantially from when he served as a state senator, when his primary sources of income were $67,100 from the state, plus between $25,000 and $50,000 for consulting work he did for a local food bank, his 2018 state financial disclosure form shows.
- Filings also show that LaRose amassed debts at American Honda Financial Services, Capital One Automotive Finance, Lowe’s Consumer Credit, American Express, Capital One Visa, and Bank of America Visa every year from 2018 to 2022.
- These financial disclosures raise questions about how he loaned his campaign a sum of $250,000 on September 30, according to Federal Election Commission records.
- “I would assert, not as an academic expert, but just as an American, that it’s unusual for someone in the middle class to have $250,000 lying around,” says Kathleen Clark, a law professor with expertise in government ethics at Washington University in St. Louis. “Highly unusual.”
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