DEAR EDITOR:
After 30 years of one-party Republican rule, Columbus achieved the infamous title of the biggest statehouse public corruption case in U.S. history with the House Bill 6 bribery scheme. David Roberts states this corruption bill was the “worst of the 21st century.” According to FBI Supervisory Agent Matthew DeBlauve, historically, they have never seen anything like it in a state legislature.
Democrats Russo and Sweeney introduced the Ohio Anti-Corruption act, HB 306, May 11 that needs to be made law. The bill would mandate disclosure of donations to political nonprofits, require disclosure of the true owners of certain nonprofits and block foreign companies from political spending via American subsidiaries.
It is no surprise that Ohio has a national reputation for GOP public corruption at the state level. This is the latest in a string of the Ohio Republican-controlled legislature’s scandals: Coingate, ECOT education scandal that robbed hundreds of millions from communities and shorted our kids’ education, and the latest $61 million HB 6 bribery scheme, including indicted former House Speaker Householder.
Republicans have long used every trick in the book to have an outsized role in Ohio to the detriment of our communities. They are entangled in public corruption and still have not removed Householder from the Legislature. Gerrymandering has been used to build a Republican supermajority in the Ohio Legislature. Even though in 2018 Republicans won about 50 percent of the vote in the 116 statehouse races, they took 63 percent of the seats. Similarly, Republicans won 75 percent of Ohio’s congressional districts with just 52 percent of the votes in 2018.
They have used this power to the detriment of local communities’ home rule. Local communities have seen state funding for schools and infrastructure continually cut. And even though Republicans boast of a majority, they have worked to suppress voting by targeting Democratically leaning demographics. They reduced early voting by a week, eliminated same-day registration and voting in 2015 and implemented a “use it or lose it” voter purge.
Important priorities for our communities like fair school funding have lacked action for decades. At the same time, Republican representatives in Columbus, who represent an increasingly fringe radical agenda, pass bills like “stand your ground” that mayors and police chiefs overwhelmingly opposed.
This unbalance in Columbus is fueled by dark money, lobbyists, corruption and weak leadership. It is long past time to put the voters, not dark money, in charge of Ohio. Let your legislators know your input on passing the Ohio Anti-Corruption Act, HB 306, and getting dark money out of Ohio state politics.
KAREN ZEHR
Warren
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May 23, 2021 at 11:45AM
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