LaRose wants to strengthen election commission, not kill it

(The Center Square) – Ohio Senate President Rob McColley doesn’t share the same concerns about the Ohio Elections Commission as Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

The Napolean Republican has little concern after LaRose sent a letter asking lawmakers to give the commission more power following testimony from Executive Director Phil Richter, who also hopes to keep the agency alive.

The House wants to eliminate it, writing it out of its two-year budget plan that now sits in the Senate awaiting passage.

“Obviously, we’ll look at what the House sent over and we’ll talk to some of our members as to what their ideas are as to the Elections Commission,” McColley told reporters at the statehouse. “We have several members who worked on election-related legislation.”

Contrary to killing the seven-member commission charged with enforcing the state’s campaign finance laws, LaRose wants to toughen it up by giving it more power to levy and collect fines.

“The commission has become an increasingly toothless and inconsistent shell of what it was intended to be,” LaRose said. “To date, it has issued nearly $100 million in fines that have so far gone uncollected, sending a terrible message that you can break the law and get away with it. There is no reason to have campaign finance laws in Ohio if we cannot meaningfully enforce them, yet that is precisely where the commission has left us.”

LaRose also wants to raise qualifications for commissioners to include legal or other experience in campaign finance and election law and develop ways to stop partisan appointments from undermining fair enforcement.

Instead of one state body tasked with election oversight, the House plan would move the responsibilities to individual boards of election in the state’s 88 counties.

That’s a bad idea, according to LaRose, who said county boards are often partisan and lack the expertise and staff to handle the responsibilities.

“Prosecuting election crimes at the county level is challenging enough,” LaRose said in the letter. “These board members, hard-working as they are, often serve as local political party chairs. They should not be placed in the awkward, unsolicited position of policing their own candidates, nor are they staffed, equipped, or trained to manage these complex cases. We should absolutely debate the critical reforms needed at the Ohio Elections Commission, but we need to improve it, not abolish and decentralize its authority.”