Judge denies GOP lawmakers’ request to block House Speaker Jason Stephens’ access to campaign cash

State Rep. Derek Merrin (right) and two allied lawmakers have filed a lawsuit asking a court to strip House Speaker Jason Stephens (left) and one of his top lieutenants of control over the House Republicans’ campaign arm and give it to them instead, as well as to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in reimbursements and damages.

COLUMBUS, Ohio—A Franklin County judge on Tuesday denied a request by a group of Ohio House Republicans to prevent House Speaker Jason Stephens and his allies from accessing the GOP caucus’ multi-million-dollar campaign bank account.

The ruling, by Franklin County Common Pleas Court Judge Mark Serrott, marks an initial defeat for Stephens’ intra-party nemesis, Republican state Rep. Derek Merrin of suburban Toledo. Merrin and two legislative allies are trying to wrest control over the House GOP’s campaign arm, the Ohio House Republican Alliance, from Stephens.

Merrin, along with state Reps. Ron Ferguson of Jefferson County and Phil Plummer of Dayton, had asked Serrott to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent Stephens and his co-defendants from accessing OHRA’s bank account, which had more than $3 million in it as of the end of January, campaign-finance records show.

Among other reasons, Merrin and the other plaintiffs argued that OHRA’s bank account should be frozen pending the resolution of a different lawsuit, in which a Columbus real-estate company is seeking $1.6 million from OHRA over a broken lease agreed to by a previous iteration of the House GOP’s campaign arm while now-imprisoned Republican Larry Householder was House speaker. That lease agreement was broken after Householder was arrested in July 2020 for overseeing a $60 million bribery scheme.

Serrott denied that request on Tuesday, according to the court’s website, though his full order was not immediately available. It still remains to be seen how Serrott will rule on the larger lawsuit over who should be given control of OHRA.

State Rep. Jeff LaRe, a Fairfield County Republican and Stephens’ pick as chair of OHRA, praised Serrott’s decision in a statement.

“We’ve always been focused on protecting incumbents and defending conservative values,” LaRe said. “This decision simply allows us to continue business as usual.”

The denial comes days after OHRA launched a $743,000 TV ad offensive to help six of Stephens’ most vulnerable legislative allies fend off Republican primary challengers. The winners of those primaries will help decide whether Stephens or outgoing Senate President Matt Huffman will have enough House GOP votes to be speaker next year, when a new legislative session begins.

Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer has reached out to Ferguson for comment.

Jeremy Pelzer covers state politics and policy for Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

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