Larry Lee Householder was born in Zanesville, Ohio. He was raised in Junction City, Ohio, where he worked on a family farm. That experience will hopefully be beneficial to him since it is likely that he will spend his senior years working on a farm operated by the United States Bureau of Prisons.
Householder, who is Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, was arrested this week by the FBI, along with four others, charged in a $60 million bribery case involving the financial bailout of FirstEngery’s two nuclear plants in Ohio, David-Besse and Perry.
In the 85-page indictment, the government lays out a pattern of greed, corruption and old-fashioned graft that amounted to $60,886,835.63 of ill-gotten gains – an amount that makes the Tiki Bar, expensive dinners and a few trips to Vegas received by former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, who has been incarcerated since 2012 with a release date of February 11, 2036, look like chump change.
Just to point out a few of the allegations against Householder, the government alleges that part of the money was used to pay off a $20,000 credit card bill that he owed. The money was funneled through a 501C4 corporation which was set up to fund societal goods but never spent a cent on helping the poor or impoverished.
Just to scratch the surface of the money Householder received, he used $100,000 to settle a lawsuit that had been filed against him. One Hundred Thousand Dollars went for repairs to his home in Florida — when most working Ohioans cannot even afford to visit Florida — and $98,000 in campaign funds. He flew on FirstEnergy’s private jet to Donald Trump’s inauguration, and the list goes on. This was a man living the good life but totally oblivious to the financial trail he was leaving as he wheeled and dealed to get what he wanted for his benefactors and friends, all on the backs of the residents of Ohio, as he raked in the cash.
From his humble beginnings, Householder attended The Ohio State University where he received a degree in political science. He obviously missed the classes on ethics and what happened to Ohio politicians in the 1920s when they got greedy in a place called Teapot Dome. After college, Householder returned to Perry County and was elected a county commissioner. Seeking higher office, in 1996 he ran and was elected to the State House of Representatives.
In just two years in the House he was elected to serve as assistant majority whip, and in 2001 he was elected to serve as Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, the highest post in the House. During his term he led major legislative reforms, including introducing concealed carry — making more money for gun manufacturers and dealers and putting more guns into circulation in Ohio; passing tort reforms that reduced the amount of money an injured plaintiff could get in a lawsuit and defunding Planned Parenthood so that poor women had no access to contraception or abortions. He voted against a proposed ban on confederate flags at county fairs around the state.
He was a man on the move and a darling of the Republican right, with sights on the governor’s mansion and beyond. But term limits sent Householder back to Perry in 2004 where he became county auditor. In 2016, his former seat came open and he was back to Columbus with dollar signs in his eyes.
In 2004, Householder ran afoul of the law. Federal investigators alleged that he was involved in a money-laundering scheme and had irregular campaign practices. For whatever reason, Householder dodged the bullet and the FBI declined to bring charges.
For anyone with even the most elementary knowledge of the way the FBI operates, it is not often that they come up short when they launch an investigation. And when they do, it would behoove the person formerly under investigation to be extremely careful in any future dealings. The FBI may miss once, but seldom a second time.
This week, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, David M. Devillers, described the scheme in which Householder was involved as “likely the largest bribery scheme ever perpetrated against the State of Ohio.”
As the plot thickens and more names of co-conspirators and future co-defendants surface, I suspect that there are a lot of nervous people in Columbus and around the state. When the FBI starts talking to lobbyists, fellow legislators and legislative aides, and discussing possible charges and resultant sentences, anyone who received a dime of the money and faces any amount of time in a Federal corrections institutions may have a “come to Jesus” moment. Offers of probation or a short sentence can jog the memories and loyalty of the most loyal friends and compatriots as the rats desert the sinking ship.
Following DeViller’s press conference there were calls by Governor Mike DeWine for Householder to resign. He has thus far declined.
With a conviction rates somewhere north of 95% in federal court, I would think that it might be in the best interest of Larry Householder to consider making the best deal early and admit all. But that does not appear to be in his DNA.
In 2019 Householder criticized the Ohio Library Council and the Newark Library in Licking County for providing an event for LGBTQ teens at taxpayer’s expense — such a sinful waste of public funds. It turns out that the event was to be paid for with non-governmental funds. But the Newark Library, intimidated by Householder canceled the event — although it was eventually held at another venue. I am sure it was not a lot of money, but to Householder and his holier-than-thou fundamentalist values, it was a matter of principal — the same principles he relied on as he was lining his pockets on the backs of Ohio taxpayers.
Hopefully, the revelation of this cesspool of greed and corruption will lead to a housecleaning of the legislative branch of Ohio’s government. But more importantly, the revelations should send a strong message to Ohio voters, just four months before the national election. The Republican Party was going to bail out their friends on the backs of Ohio taxpayers and all the time lining their own pockets. Do you want four more years of that kind of thinking?
Ohio Democrats should make Householder their poster boy for all that is wrong in certain segments of the Republican Party and use this scandal to change the state from red to blue in the November election and break the Republican control of Ohio politics.
If lucky, maybe Householder can share a cell with Donald Trump and Paul Manafort. To boot, they can get some free jail house lawyering from Michael Cohen and William Barr. The cost of their incarcerations will be taxpayers’ money well spent.
C. Ellen Connally is a retired judge of the Cleveland Municipal Court. From 2010 to 2014 she served as the President of the Cuyahoga County Council. An avid reader and student of American history, she serves on the Board of the Ohio History Connection, is currently vice president of the Cuyahoga County Soldiers and Sailors Monument Commission and president of the Cleveland Civil War Round Table. She holds degrees from BGSU, CSU and is all but dissertation for a PhD from the University of Akron.
4 Responses to “Larry Householder: The Poster Boy for Republican Greed by C. Ellen Connally”
Richard Murray
just a friendly fact-check: paragraph 23 of the criminal complaint states that over $300,000 was used to pay legal fees and settlement costs of a lawsuit Householder brought against political opponents who rans ads questioning Householder’s ethics—so he used bribe money to settle his suit professing his ethics—Larry, Larry, Larry—expect a letter from the IRS as well
Rich M
great article—thanks
Alice Gould Butts
Thanks for this, Ellen! I’m quite sure that the reason we have no wind turbine in Lake Erie is because Householder had some clout in preventing their permits. When I spoke to company planning to have them installed five miles out from the Cleveland Shoreline, we were at the 2018 Sustainability Summit, and they said they were in the process of permitting back then, in Columbus. I’d feared that the salt water model used in places like Belgium and elsewhere would be problematic in the icy Lake Erie that had experienced Edgewater Park’s destroyed pier (back in the 1980’s when my husband was a State Senator. It was a six million dollar pier which engineers had guaranteed to last for a century but state never got public money back). So I asked their team about ice. They assured me that if Canadian bridges don’t get destroyed by ice, their wind turbine bases wouldn’t either. I believe they were using German engineering technology? Anyway, no permits, no clean wind energy; the filthy lucre of dirty oil and gas power won out as usual. At least so far….
David C.
Very good article.
Larry Householder graduated from Ohio University – not The Ohio State University.