Blystone Hearing on the Eve of the Republican Primary
At the 11 o’clock hour on the eve of the Republican primary for the Ohio Governor Race the Ohio Election Commission met to hear the Capella v Blystone case. The hearing started off with the address of 3 motions: a motion to continue, a motion to block witnesses, and a motion to deny all 3 were denied by the Commission.
The first witness to testify was Joe Blystone’s wife and campaign treasurer, Jane Blystone. Curt Hartman the attorney for the plaintiff asked Mrs Blystone what she did to prepare to take on the role of Treasurer she said, “We read the Ohio Revised Code.” Mr Hartman asked if she read the Campaign Finance Handbook publishing by the Ohio Secretary of State to help with campaign finance she said “no.”
Mr Hartman continued asking Mrs Blystone about their procedures for collecting money at events for the campaign. Mrs Blystone was asked if she gave any other instruction other than you don’t need to take name and address for under $25 and she said “no.” Then later she was asked if she told volunteers that they could not accept cash in amounts over $100 she said “yes.” Mr Hartman then questioned her why she was changing her testimony in less than 30 seconds.
Clip 1 was played as evidence, it showed Dr Douglas Frank giving Joe Blystone $100 in cash as a donation. Mrs Blystone says that $100 was not a donation but instead a prop to get voters to donate. Then later in the video, a whole line of people handed something that is believed to be cash to Mr Blystone and in the video, there was no effort to write down names or information. Mrs Blystone, can’t recall if that was money being handed to Mr Blystone.
Mrs Blystone was questioned at length about specific events, procedures, and different irregularities in the financial reporting. The Commission Executive Director recommended that the hearing be continued at a later date to be determined and the commissioners agreed to that recommendation.
The Capella v Blystone hearing was one for the history books as one of the biggest election commission cases Ohio has seen in a while.
