COLUMBUS, Ohio—Should nonprofit organizations, including credit union associations, that spend money on Ohio elections be forced to publicly disclose who funds them?
Some lawmakers say yes and are trying once again to change the state’s campaign finance law in an effort to make political spending more transparent, according to the Sandusky Register.
State Reps. Allison Russo (D-Upper Arlington) and Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Cleveland) have reintroduced a bill nicknamed the “Ohio Anti-Corruption Act.” Two-dozen Democrats in the Ohio House of Representatives have co-sponsored the bill, the Sandusky Register reported.
State law requires political candidates to publicly report donations to their campaigns. Organizations such as political action committees (PACs) are also required to report who funds them and what causes the PAC spends money on.
Bill Follows Scandal
The legislation comes in the wake of allegations of significant wrongdoing in the Buckeye State, the so-called “The House Bill 6 scandal,” which led to the July 2020 arrests of House Speaker Larry Householder and several other Republican operatives, and which helped draw attention to a noteworthy exception in Ohio’s campaign finance laws, the Sandusky Register noted.
The loophole? Nonprofit 501(c)(4) organizations, known as “social welfare groups,” are not required to report their donors.
The loophole was key component to the House Bill 6 scheme, prosecutors have alleged, with corporate money being funneled through a 501(c)(4) group secretly controlled by Householder. The money then supported the 2019 passage of a $1.3 billion nuclear bailout bill and was also used to defeat a ballot initiative to overturn the bill, the Sandusky Register explained.
In the 10 months since the scandal broke, lawmakers of both parties have pushed for campaign finance reform in order to prevent “dark money groups” from adversely influencing Ohio’s political process, the report noted.