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For political observers outside of Ohio, Larry Householder’s name is probably unfamiliar. But the former Republican state House speaker was facing criminal charges that generated attention far outside the Buckeye State, and in March, he was convicted in what prosecutors described as the largest corruption case in state history.
Yesterday, as the NBC affiliate in Cincinnati reported, it was time for sentencing. The judge was not lenient.
Former State House Speaker Larry Householder was sentenced to 20 years in prison Thursday for his role in a $60 million bribery scheme that federal prosecutors have called the largest corruption case in state history. Judge Timothy Black did not letting Householder self-surrender. He is now in custody of the federal government.
As is often the case in corruption cases, there’s a degree of complexity to the underlying allegations, but as a recent Boston Globe report explained, prosecutors argued that the former GOP speaker funneled more than $60 million from an energy company through a dark-money group in exchange for a lucrative bailout.
A Cleveland Plain Dealer report added that some of that $60 million ended up benefiting the Republican lawmaker personally: Prosecutors pointed to evidence that Householder used the money to pay down legal debts, credit card bills, and repairs to a home in Florida.
Why would this matter to political observers outside of Ohio? The Globe’s article noted that the case “could send a message through the campaign finance world about the consequences of misusing dark-money groups, a term for a category of tax-exempt nonprofits that can raise unlimited sums to influence politics without ever disclosing their donors.”
The guilty verdict, in other words, wasn’t just noticed in Columbus.
But I’m also struck by how frequently we’ve seen state House speakers run into legal trouble like this in recent years.
October 2014: Bobby Harrell, the Republican state House speaker in South Carolina, pled guilty to six counts related to misusing his campaign account for personal benefit.
November 2014: Mike Hubbard, the Republican state House speaker in Alabama, was arrested for multiple alleged felonies, including the misuse of his public office for personal gain. He ultimately served more than two years in prison.
January 2015: Prosecutors indicted Sheldon Silver, the Democratic state House speaker in New York, on corruption charges. He, too, was later sentenced to prison.
March 2022: Michael Madigan, the Democratic state House speaker in Illinois, was indicted on federal racketeering charges. His trial is still pending, but several people close to his case were convicted last month.
April 2023: Rick Johnson, the former Republican state House speaker in Michigan, admitted to taking bribes as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
And in June 2023, Ohio’s Householder was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
It’s quite a pattern.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.