Republican Larry Householder projects strength and smarts. Behind the scenes, his world is crumbling.
Laura A. Bischoff and Jessie Balmert, The Columbus Dispatch
Published
2:04 am UTC Jul. 21, 2021
Moments after he was removed from the Ohio House of Representatives, indicted former Speaker Larry Householder held his head high, stepped in front of television cameras and told fellow Ohioans not to count him out. I ve never solicited a bribe, Householder said outside the House chamber. I ve never been bribed, and I ve never sold legislation.
Householder delivered his responses confidently, but beneath the surface, the Republican former lawmaker was facing immense pressure, both politically and financially. That moment embodies how Householder has crafted a political career on the edge of a knife – projecting power and strength while elsewhere, his world is crumbling.
Column: And so ends another lackluster General Assembly
The Columbus Dispatch
As the curtain falls on Ohio’s 133rd General Assembly, words from the Book of Common Prayer come to mind: “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done. And especially apt, given the Ohio House’s fecklessness about COVID-19 safeguards “there is no health in us.”
The two-year session opened on Jan. 7, 2019, when former House Speaker Larry Householder, a Republican from Perry County’s Glenford, regained the speakership, 52-46, besting fellow Republican Ryan Smith, of Gallia County’s Bidwell, speaker for 2018’s final six months. Of the 52 pro-Householder votes, House Democrats provided 26, a fact Democrats don’t ballyhoo.