Householder arrested
By 
Of the two states I spend my time in, I pay a lot more attention to Seattle/Washington politics than Dayton/Ohio, and as such I don’t have much commentary or insight to offer here, but this morning’s development seems momentous enough to warrant a thread.
Federal officials arrested Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and several others on Tuesday in connection with a $60 million bribery case.
U.S. Attorney David DeVillers’ office would not discuss details of the case, but multiple sources confirmed Householder’s arrest.
Former Ohio GOP Chairman Matt Borges, longtime Householder adviser Jeff Longstreth, and lobbyists Neil Clark and Juan Cespedes also were arrested, the sources confirmed.
My limited impressions/understanding of Householder is that, while his public image is that of a very Trumpian Guns and God good ol’ boy wingnut, he is in fact profoundly venal and calculating transactional politician, who treats ideology as a means to end rather than an end itself. On a number of occasions, including the securing of his speakership and his atrocious energy bill, he’s not shy about negotiating and making concessions with Democrats, when his fellow Republicans are reluctant to go along. There’s a plausible case to be made that these traits make him preferable to the median elected Republican in these dark times, but they also don’t make participation in a massive bribery scheme particularly difficult to imagine.
Press conference at 2:30 should be interesting. Particularly interested to hear from any Ohio readers a bit more plugged in than I; will update this post throughout the day if/when more juicy details come to light.
….plunderbund, which is probably the most valuable follow on twitter for Ohio politics, thinks “Generation Now,” the dark money org that worked tirelessly for the passage of HB6, what Dave Roberts called the worst energy bill of the 21st century, is probably involved and that seems like a good bet. (I wrote about the failed repeal efforts last year).
…..the complaint. Initial speculation appears likely to be largely correct.