ORP Committee Member Calls for Meeting to Condemn Stephens

BY MATT URBAS

Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee member Josh Brown sent a letter on Monday to fellow members of the committee, calling for a special meeting to be held to address Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) and his use of Ohio House Republican Alliance campaign funds to run attack ads against primary challengers to his allies in the legislature.

Ohio House Republican Alliance (OHRA) is a “legislative campaign fund,” state law allowing the members of a major party caucus within the legislature to contribute funds for the benefit of the caucus.  Upon their election to the house, members are expected to contribute to the fund, which, according to state law, is then "administered and controlled in a manner designated by the caucus." The funds are often used to funnel contributions from members in safe districts toward Republicans in more competitive, tossup districts to win more overall seats in the chamber for the party in the upcoming session..

The sixty-seven Republicans elected to the House in late 2022 held a private vote for Speaker and chose Derek Merrin, but Jason Stephens and twenty-one other Republicans backed out of the customary agreement to honor the caucus' choice, and with the help of all thirty-two Democrat members of the chamber, got Stephens elected to the speakership, leaving control of the OHRA funds in question.

The factions reportedly had reached an agreement to jointly administer the OHRA funds, but Stephens and his ally Jeff LaRe have since taken total control.  Representative Ron Ferguson and others filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas court trying to get control of the funds, but Judge Mark Serrott, a Democrat, ruled against their motion for a temporary restraining order, meaning the case will likely drag on well past the point of relevance in the coming election. Brown’s letter to the Ohio Republican Party alleges that Stephens has been using those funds to run attack ads against Republican challengers to his voting bloc, including against candidates that were endorsed by the Ohio Republican Party itself at the party’s meeting in January.

Brown proposes that the committee meet to pass a resolution ordering the chairman of the state party (Alex Triantifilou) to take "all efforts necessary to seize control of the OHRA," and begin spending the funds in a manner that benefits the majority of the caucus and to only use the funds to support ORP endorsed candidates and to not spend the funds to negatively attack Republican candidates.