World Courant
Fractured relations between completely different factions of the Ohio Home of Representatives’ Republican supermajority have reportedly been exacerbated by a brand new lawsuit.The go well with, filed by state Rep. Derek Merrin, calls for state Home Speaker Jason Stephens relinquish management of the Ohio Home Republican Alliance and greater than $1 million in marketing campaign funds.Merrin misplaced the Buckeye State’s speakership to Stephens in an upset in January.
A schism between Ohio’s Home Republicans seems to solely be widening after a rival GOP-contingent sued fellow conservative Home Speaker Jason Stephens to grab management of over $1 million in marketing campaign funds.
State Rep. Derek Merrin, of Monclova, filed a lawsuit in Franklin County Frequent Pleas Court docket Saturday in opposition to Stephens for management over the Ohio Home Republican Alliance and its coffers that fund campaigns for state Republican legislators — the most recent improvement within the saga of GOP-supermajority infighting that is wracked the legislative chamber for practically a yr.
Merrin, alongside avid supporters Reps. Phil Plummer and Ron Ferguson, additionally Republicans, argue within the lawsuit that Merrin is the chief of the alliance after a closed-door vote by the vast majority of the Home Republican caucus earlier this yr. Due to this fact, he leads the alliance and has authority over distributing its funds, that are anticipated to develop as marketing campaign season revs up.
ADVOCACY GROUPS ACCUSE OHIO STATEHOUSE MAPS OF FAVORING REPUBLICANS, DESPITE BIPARTISAN SUPPORT
Stephens supporters have famous that, historically, the speaker is the chief of their celebration caucus, although authorized consultants beforehand advised The Related Press that Ohio regulation doesn’t expressly require the speaker and caucus chief to be the identical particular person.
The plaintiffs are additionally suing for practically $400,000 in reimbursements and damages, alleging that Stephens backtracked on a deal reached earlier this yr for Plummer and Stephens supporter GOP Rep. Jeff LaRe to co-chair the alliance — which means any spending of the marketing campaign funds would first must be accredited by each LaRe and Plummer.
Within the lawsuit, Merrin and firm stated Stephens and LaRe, who can also be being sued, employed workers and mentioned funding Home candidate campaigns, amongst different alliance enterprise with out Plummer’s involvement.
Republican Ohio Home Speaker Jason Stephens addresses reporters on the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, Might 9, 2023. (AP Photograph/Julie Carr Smyth, file)
The representatives’ lawyer, Lisa Ferguson, Ron Ferguson’s mom, couldn’t be reached for remark.
In a joint assertion, Stephens and LaRe known as the lawsuit “nothing greater than the determined antics of a handful of self-promoting people.”
“Their actions quantity to nothing however a petty distraction from the true work being executed to help the well-being of their fellow Ohioans and the Republican Celebration they declare to symbolize,” the lawmakers stated within the assertion.
Rumblings of a lawsuit in opposition to Stephens have circulated within the Statehouse since January, when, in a shocking flip of occasions, the agricultural Southern Ohio Republican snagged the management seat with largely Democratic help.
OHIO JUDGE PUTS MASSIVE GOP-BACKED EDUCATION OVERHAUL ON HOLD
The end result got here as a shock to Merrin, believed to be a shoo-in for speaker after a casual vote in late 2022.
Thus, a public feud between supporters of Merrin and Stephens launched, although competing claims of Republican management died down in the course of the tedious state funds course of.
Nonetheless, Stephens is probably going going through one other risk to his place pretty quickly. GOP Senate President Matt Huffman, who’s term-limited in his Senate seat, has overtly touted he is vying for speakership when he runs for the Home subsequent yr.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Huffman has already been drumming up help from Stephens’ rivals within the Home for such a problem, and dropping management of the alliance and its funds might considerably weaken the speaker’s probabilities of staying in management.
