BY MATT URBAS

It was announced Wednesday that Republican members of the Ohio House of Representatives Derek Merrin, Phil Plummer, and Ron Ferguson have filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Common Pleas Court against House Speaker Jason Stephens, Representative Jeff LaRe, and two others. The suit alleges that they have unlawfully seized control of the House GOP campaign fund and are requesting the court to give control over the funds to Plummer and Merrin.

A “Legislative Campaign Fund” is a creature of Ohio law and is a special type of campaign fund designated to receive and spend contributions for the primary purpose of electing members of a particular party and house of the state legislature. The law [ORC 3517.10(D)(3)(d)] specifies that the administration and control of those funds shall be determined “in a manner designated by the caucus”. The fund is typically stocked with donations from members of the caucus, who, having been elected to the chamber, are expected to contribute to the next election to maintain the strength and success of the party caucus.

The “Ohio House Republican Alliance” is the GOP Legislative Campaign Fund for the Ohio House Republican caucus, which is divided over its leadership. Shortly after the election in November of 2022, the caucus gathered to determine their choice for Speaker of the House once the new General Assembly was inaugurated in January. There they voted to elect Representative Derek Merrin as Speaker. The Speaker of the House is traditionally considered the de facto leader of the majority caucus. However, the Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives must be elected by a majority of the entire House, and although the majority party is typically able to dictate who becomes Speaker by unifying around their caucus’ choice, a group of 22 Republicans hatched a scheme to instead elect Jason Stephens to the Speaker’s chair, forming a coalition with all 32 Democrat members of the House. Therefore, while Stephens was selected Speaker of the House by a 54-43 vote, among the GOP caucus itself, the vote was 43-22 in favor of Merrin.

As the Speaker, Stephens has considered himself the leader of the GOP caucus and has appointed loyalists to control and administer the Ohio House Republican Alliance funds. However, the lawsuit filed this month claims that by virtue of the November vote, Merrin is actually the duly elected leader of the caucus. Asserting himself as caucus leader, Merrin called a meeting of the Republican members of the House on January 24 of this year, for purposes of officially voting for a caucus leader and administrators of the Legislative Campaign Fund. The meeting appears to have been ignored or boycotted by the Stephens faction – but the lawsuit states that a majority of the House GOP caucus was present and unanimously voted Merrin as Chair of the House GOP caucus. Critically for purposes of the lawsuit, the members present also elected Representative Phil Plummer as chair of the Legislative Campaign Fund and Merrin as co-chair.

Stephens refused to acknowledge the outcome of the meeting, and while the sides butted heads over control of the campaign funds, in April they appeared to reach an agreement where the Fund would be co-administered by Representative Jeff LaRe, a Stephens ally, and Plummer. It appears, however, that Stephens and LaRe reneged on the agreement and began hiring staff and directing the treasurer to disburse funds without gaining or seeking approval from Plummer.

Reiterating that Stephens has no authority to appoint a chair to or disburse funds from the Ohio House Republican Alliance, Merrin, Plummer and Ferguson claim that the over $284,000 that has been spent by the fund are unauthorized and illegal expenditures and ask the court to require Stephens and LaRe personally reimburse the fund for those expenses. They also ask the court to declare that the OHRA fund be administered according to the law that rather explicitly states “in a manner designated by the caucus”.

The fund reported over $1.2 million in contributions for the semiannual reporting period ended July 2023. The largest contributors are all members of the Stephens faction. Stephens’s campaign fund itself contributed $500,000 during the period. Representative Jon Cross, who Stephens named assistant majority floor leader, gave $100,000, Jeff LaRe contributed $50,000. Majority floor leader Representative Bill Seitz contributed $45,000, and majority whip James Hoops, as well as Brett Hillyer, and Kevin Miller each gave $40,000. Stephens named Seitz Majority Floor Leader, Cross Assistant Majority Floor Leader, and Hoops Majority Whip.