COLUMBUS -- "Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder has spent nearly $950,000 from his campaign account on legal fees since his arrest in July on a federal corruption charge, according to the campaign-finance report he filed with the state on Thursday.

Nearly all of that money -- $920,000-- went to two law firms that are aiding in his criminal legal defense. Two experts in state campaign-finance law called the spending questionable, since the Ohio Elections Commission, which interprets and enforces election law in Ohio, repeatedly has found that spending campaign money on a candidate’s criminal defense is illegal under state law.

Maggie Sheehan, a spokeswoman for Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican who is the state’s top elections official, said: 'Yet again, it appears that the former speaker’s campaign flagrantly disregards state law and will result in another referral to the Ohio Elections Commission.'"

-- Andrew Tobias, cleveland.com 

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