On December 16, 2021, after more than a year, Ohio Elections Commission Case 2020G-019, Hicks v. Freeman, reached a milestone. Team Householder candidate Allen Freeman was assessed a $50,000 fine for false campaign finance reporting. That, after Freeman spent $90,000 in legal fees with self-professed master of the OEC, Don Brey, against me, a lowlife pro se citizen. The case revolved around $137,000 in unreported media spend done in the name of Freeman’s Committee and paid for by Constant Content who was funded by Generation Now (aka: First Energy). Another case, yet to be heard, revolves around an equivalent amount spent in the name of Freeman’s campaign for direct mail. A third case, not yet filed, should revolve around a wealth of paid resources supporting the Freeman campaign that were never reported anywhere.
On August 16, 2021, 11 months in on Case 2020G-019, Freeman’s lawyer, Don Brey, said of me, “You should be aware that Mr. Hicks has repeatedly made misrepresentations throughout this case in an apparent attempt to abuse the process and to cause harm to all involved.” Where did he say that? In a desperate email intended to intimidate my witnesses. Mr. Brey is an attorney at Isaac Wiles. He and his firm do very well representing people like Allen Freeman. That is part of the problem.
The $50,000 Freeman fine may be a record for a first-time offender. Was it even covered in the Columbus Press? Nope. That is another part of the problem, but just the tip of the iceberg.
During deliberations, one of the Commissioners said Freeman’s offense was “a violation in plain sight.” It was. So why did it take more than a year? At every step the process is designed to protect the Allen Freeman’s of the world and to wear down and spit out the Chris Hicks’ of the world.
In Ohio none of the institutions that you think are supposed to be beacons of ethics, accountability, transparency, and integrity are. Think Ethics Commission, Election Commission and even the Board of Tax Appeals. They are all flimsy facades at best. The $50,000 fine is not an example of “justice,” it is an example of a façade.
In deliberations, the same Commissioner who called what Freeman did a “violation in plain sight” said that Mr. Freeman needed to be made an example. The Commissioners all agreed and instructed the Director, Phil Richter, that Freeman should be fined $100 per day from June 5, 2020, to December 16, 2021. At the time, Richter guessed that that was about 500 days and would be $50,000. In reality, it was 559 days and should have been a fine of $55,900 if the instructions of the Commission had been followed. But Richter stuck to $50,000. He knew it was wrong. On December 7, 2021, before he set to writing a decision, I told him the correct number of days.
What should have happened is a maximum fine ($55,900) and a criminal referral of Freeman and others. The fact that it isn’t what happened is an indictment of the Commission as a whole and its Director, Phil Richter.
Not only was it all a “violation in plain sight” everyone knew what was going on.
The media company that worked with Freeman knew what was going on. Strategic Media Placement is the king of both campaign and dark money media for Republican causes in Ohio. They did the work for Freeman. They filed disclosures that the Freeman Campaign had paid for the advertising. But, their COO, Scott Schweitzer said in a sworn affidavit: “SMP invoiced Constant Content Co., who paid those invoices for work done in connection with the Allen Freeman campaign.”
The Ohio Republican Party knew what was going on. Former Executive Director of the Ohio Republican Party, Rob Secaur, testified that Jeff Longstreth and Megan Fitzmartin were running the House Republican Campaign Committee (HRCC), and thus many Republican Rep. campaigns. At the same time Longstreth was running, and the authorized check signer for, Generation Now (aka: First Energy and Householder). Per the Householder Federal indictment, about $15,000,000 was transferred to Longstreth from Generation Now. That money supported both dark money operations and candidate campaigns. Coordination in plain sight and testified to under oath (by Secaur).
The treasurer, Susan Jones, of Winterset CPAs, knew what was going on. She got the $290,000 invoice for Freeman (as did Freeman, but he claimed he did not see it in his email). She made clearly false filings and went on to do so even after media and other invoices were disclosed, again, in the case. She stunned the Commission by claiming she never looked at the invoice detail describing the amount as shocking and unbelievable for an Ohio House Campaign. That was a lie. She was involved with Mark Fraizer’s campaign that reported over $500,000 of spending (direct and in-kind) for another 2020 Ohio House race. Ponder that. I assure you that Fraizer was not worth $500,000 for anything other than voting as told. Jones is the deputy treasurer for Matt Huffman, Dave Yost, and Robert Sprague. Winterset is tightly connected to Republican insiders. The webs are thick and “in plain sight.”
Stephen Caraway, a Householder operative in the 2020 campaigns, knew what was going on. He set up an entity to cloud the dollars flowing to him, Churn Creek Consulting, via Longstreth. He invoiced Constant Content, not the Freeman Campaign, for expenses. He worked with and met with Allen Freeman regularly. He was present when commercials were filmed. He knew, and testified, that the campaign looked to be $200,000-$300,000 and that he thought there was a big debt. Grudgingly, he ultimately admitted under oath, to having discussed it with Freeman. Caraway talked with me throughout the case and during the 2020 campaign. He described to me an environment where spend did not matter and everyone knew something very strange was going on.
The office of Frank LaRose knew what was going on. During the course of the Freeman Case, 2020G-019, his office aided and abetted a coverup. Not once, but three times.
Strike one: When Freeman filed clearly false reports that he spent only $15,000 on his entire campaign (less than 15% of what he raised in a highly competitive race featuring saturation media), Mr. LaRose’s office did nothing.
Strike two: On April 15, 2021, Freeman’s treasurer, Jones, in concert with Freeman lawyer Don Brey, sent a letter and various invoices to Mr. LaRose’s office. It was an attempt to create plausible denial on $290,000 in unreported spending. What did Mr. LaRose’s office do? Secretly inserted the pages in Freeman’s June 2020 Post-Primary finance report and told no one. Mind you, they were on the 2020G-019 witness list. They knew of the case. How did I find out? From an anonymous tip from inside LaRose’s office by someone disturbed by the unethical behavior.
Strike three: Believe it or not, it got worse, Mr. LaRose’s office tried to shut down Freeman’s campaign committee on December 13 to aid and abet a last-minute play by Brey to claim the OEC had lost jurisdiction because Mr. Larose terminated the committee. But wait, even worse, LaRose’s office knows there is another active complaint on Freeman, on his direct mail. Who would be so bold as to terminate a Committee that is subject of multiple active complaints and tied to Householder? Brian Katz. LaRose’s Director of Campaign Finance and his Campaign Finance Counsel. It is inexplicable and serves only to thwart accountability.
As a friend of mine would say, “It is either that you are corrupt or incompetent. Either way, you cannot be a leader anymore.”
So, a $50,000 fine. It is well-deserved but it is also part of a culture of corruption to trick us that something will really get better. Every one of the people I mentioned above should have been referred for criminal investigation. They weren’t. They are a bigger part of the story and until someone goes to jail, and not just the top few people, nothing will get better. There is literally no fear of any accountability.
And where are the people who were hip deep in illegal coordination and the use of corporate money for campaigns? Rob Secaur now works for Jane Timken. Megan Fitzmartin now works for JD Vance (with other Team Householder resources). Steve Caraway runs the new HRCC, the House Republican Alliance.
So, I am not sure that all of the OEC members realized they got played in issuing a $50,000 fine but they did. This case is much bigger. I will not give up. We must reform an Ohio political culture that the Columbus Dispatch called the most corrupt in the country. I wish others would join me in this fight. Especially those Commissioners who, upon reading this, might pause and realize there is so much work to be done to restore integrity to our elections after $61,000,000 in bribes of which $290,000 ended up funding “Paid for by the Committee to Elect Allen Freeman.”
Chris Hicks is a government integrity and accountability activist in Southwest Ohio. He can be contacted at [email protected].