COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio Election Commission had a full hearing scheduled for today and tomorrow to investigate multiple election law violation complaints filed by three separate parties against former gubernatorial candidate Joe Blystone. Instead of a hearing, the session turned into a settlement conference that resulted in an agreement.
That agreement orders Blystone to surrender his campaign cash of approximately $105,000 and shut down his campaign fund. The funds are to be distributed by paying $75,000 to an escrow account for a case Blystone started in Delaware County against his former campaign co-manager; turning over the remaining balance to the Ohio Election Commission in the form of a fine. Additionally, Blystone stipulates that the allegations made in the complaints are fact and commits to not seek office for five years.
“This is one of the biggest fines the commission has ever levied,” Blystone attorney Josh Brown said as he proposed the agreement before the commission. “You’ve been given everything, all the facts, that would be in question. We worked together in good faith.”
In a complaint filed through attorney Brian Katz in August, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose alleged that the Canal Winchester farmer, his wife and his campaign committee broke finance laws 13 times during Blystone’s 2022 run for the governor’s seat.
Ohio elector Mary Capella also accused Blystone of improperly reporting campaign contributions, expenses and taking campaign money for his personal use.
Blystone sued Chambers in Delaware County for defamation of character—a charge he later dropped. However, Chambers counter-sued the cowboy-hat-wearing former candidate for abuse of process to recapture legal fees she paid for Blystone’s litigious attempt at retribution she told The Ohio Press Network (OPN).
The Chambers case produced a Blystone deposition during which he admitted he knowingly flouted Ohio election finance laws; he also said that retiring chairman of the Ohio Republican Party Bob Paduchik visited his farm when Blystone reached out for help after the May primary election but before the November general election.
Paduchik resigned two days after the deposition dropped.
The proverbial can has been kicked down the road by the OEC as several sessions have been scheduled since early 2022 to hear testimony and consider evidence on the matters. Last month the group voted again to conduct a full hearing despite its legal counsel and executive director Phillip Richter attempting to get commissioners to agree to indefinitely postponing hearings while he worked with Blystone’s legal counsel to reach a settlement—an effort to which lawyers of Capella, Chambers and LaRose objected.
LaRose attorney Brian Katz offered Blystone a settlement last September that would have required him to return the balance of his campaign funds to the Ohio Election Commission, admit intentional wrongdoing and pledge to not run for office for four years or face having LaRose’s 13-point complaint referred to the Franklin County Prosecutor’s Office for investigation and potential prosecution.
Blystone rejected that offer. Thursday, he agreed. The commission accepted the offer by a unanimous 7-0 vote.
“The most disappointing point from our perspective is that at the end of the day, not a single dime is coming from Joe Blystone’s pocket. This money is the sum of a lot of small contributions—some from individuals who gave to a campaign for the first time. That’s their money. Those people, in a certain sense, are the people actually paying this fine,” said Curt Hartman, attorney for Capella.
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Repub is by Ohio Press Network.
Photo “Joe Blystone” by Joe Blystone.
