Brown blames GOP rule for corruption case
Sen. Sherrod Brown is joining the bipartisan chorus of Ohio politicians calling for the resignation of Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder.
During a conference call with reporters on Wednesday, Brown, a Democrat, said Householder’s arrest in an alleged racketeering scheme is a result of decades of control by the Ohio Republican Party.
“This is a Republican Party that is intrinsically corrupt,” he said. “Look at what’s happened in this state because one party has ruled for so long.”
“Absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Republicans control both chambers of the Ohio General Assembly and swept every statewide elected office in 2018 except for Brown’s Senate seat.
Ohio GOP chairwoman Jane Murphy Timken on Tuesday also called for Householder’s resignation in a video message.
Householder was arrested Tuesday at his farm in Perry County and is charged, along with four others, in a $60 million racketeering and bribery investigation. Federal prosecutors allege that a dark-money group controlled by Householder received $60 million in exchange for votes on a $1 billion bailout of two nuclear plants and blocking a plan to try to overturn the legislation.
Brown also said he is “thrilled” that former Gov. John Kasich is scheduled to speak at the mostly digital Democratic
National Convention but still disagrees with the Republican on many of the policies he put in place during his two terms as Ohio’s governor.
“(Kasich) also understands that President Trump has been a terrible, divisive president, and I welcome John to speak to the Democratic National Convention,” he said.
Many Ohio Democrats have panned the idea of having the former Republican governor speak at the party’s convention.
On Tuesday, Brown was promoting his support for a resolution in the Senate to declare racism a national public health crisis.
Some public officials already have passed similar resolutions in response to the protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the COVID-19 pandemic that has put a spotlight on racial disparities in healthcare.
“Some want to treat coronavirus and racism as separate issues but they are intimately connected,” Brown said. “The pandemic has been the great revealer. It’s exposed what Black Ohioans already knew —that racism threatens their health, their safety, their lives everyday.”
Columbus City Council and the Franklin County Commissioners have adopted resolutions declaring racism a public health crisis as well. Hamilton County also has passed a resolution.
A similar resolution proposed by Democratic lawmakers has not received a vote in the Ohio General Assembly. gshillcock@dispatch.com @Shillcockgeorge