COLUMBUS, Ohio — The leader of the Ohio House is speaking at a campaign fundraiser for the attorney of ex-speaker, and now felon, Larry Householder. Scott Pullins is running to become a state representative after his client and friend was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for participating in the largest bribery scheme in state history.
Pullins confirmed that Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens (R-Kitts Hill) would be attending as a "special guest" to his fundraiser on March 4 in Columbus. The flyer for the event includes Stephens' name in large font in the middle of the page.
"I'm very appreciative of his support," Pullins said.
WCPO's sister station in Cleveland, WEWS, reached out to the campaign spokesperson for Stephens to ask about his support and is awaiting a response.
Pullins is running in a three-person Republican primary in hopes of earning the nomination for House District 98, which contains Coshocton and Holmes counties, as well as part of Knox. The other GOP opponents are business owner Mark Hiner and IT professional Brandon Lape. This seat is left open by a term-limited state Rep. Darrell Kick (R-Loudonville).
WEWS asked Pullins if he would be supportive of Stephens were he to win his primary, considering there is a contentious speakership race expected in 2025.
"I'm focused on winning the primary," he said. "But I believe he's done an incredible job under the worst possible environment. Republicans need to stop the infighting."
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The Republicans inside the House and between chambers cannot stop fighting with each other — this has led to a continuous effort to unseat Stephens, or rather, make his work as difficult as possible.
Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) is expected to challenge Stephens for House speakership in January. He has a faction of supporters within the House currently, and candidates have said that Huffman has helped support their bid to knock out the Stephens' team incumbents.
Scandal
This support comes as three additional men who allegedly masterminded the House Bill 6 scandal pleaded not guilty in court in mid-February. Householder took a $61 million bribe in exchange for legislation to give utility company FirstEnergy a $1 billion bailout, named H.B. 6, all at the expense of the taxpayers.
Pullins was, and is still on the payroll as Householder's campaign finance attorney.
This bribery scandal has been covered extensively by Morgan Trau, who followed the legislation all the way through the Statehouse, the arrests, trial, conviction and sentencing of Householder and former GOP leader Matt Borges. She continues to follow it as the next group are indicted federally and by the state.
Back in March 2023, Pullins spoke exclusively to WEWS about the guilty verdict — saying he didn't think he would be in the next group of individuals related to Householder would be indicted. He was not and has never been charged with a crime.
"I was involved with a lot of stuff that the events that occurred... during this," Pullins said in an interview before the verdict. "Larry has never asked me to lie."
Speaking about his relationship with Householder, the lawyer defended the former speaker for the entirety of the interview, blaming judicial bias and the FBI unfairly targeting his friend.
"If the federal government goes in and taps my phone... they're probably going to, if they listen long enough, hear some dumb stuff, some stupid stuff and probably some stuff we would feel embarrassed to hear in a courtroom," Pullins said about audio of Householder threatening lawmakers' children.
He was upset he didn't get to testify in front of the jury, as he had asked the defense if he could and even interviewed with them, he said.
Householder's ties to Pullins
Along with being a client and a legal advisor, Pullins was paid by JPL and Associates, Longstreth's consulting firm.
The FBI found, and Longstreth admitted, that Householder's non-profit Generation Now, which was funded by FirstEnergy bribes, was the pot of money the team was dipping into. To break this down further, JPL used Generation Now funds to pay Pullins for complimentary coverage of the nuclear bailout.
"I was working for 3rd Rail Politics," the lawyer said, unprompted. "Part of my job with JPL was to research, write and get placed articles, columns, different sites."
3rd Rail Politics was a Householder-friendly blog that existed through 2018, but was pulled down around the time the now-convict became speaker of the Ohio House.
"I would have been paid either by 3rd Rail Politics or by JPL," Pullins added.
When asked if he was being paid to speak to Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau, Pullins said he could be, but "hadn't planned" on billing for it.
In his reports, which are now only available through screenshots and archive searches, he negatively covered Householder's speaker opponent Ryan Smith. This follows months of reporting on Smith's predecessor Cliff Rosenberger.
A few days after the interview took place, Pullins backtracked and said JPL asked him to look into Smith, but "can't recall" if he was explicitly paid to write about him.
"I'll have to look back... Did I reach out the folks there and... look for information... as sources and things like that? Yeah," Pullins said when asked a third time for a direct answer about whether he was paid using Generation Now funds to write about Smith. "But as far as being directed or asked... I can't recall anything like that."
As part of his employment at 3rd Rail, he had to sign a nondisclosure for his boss Cyndy Rees, he said, when asked about why he couldn't go into more details.
Stephens' relationship with individuals who worked with Householder
Any individual who still works at the Statehouse who was affiliated with Householder has not been charged with any crimes.
That being said, the following individuals worked with the former speaker and testified during the now-convicted felon's trial. At least one of the following was subpoenaed for testimony, however, it was likely they all were:
- State Rep. Bill Seitz, Majority Floor Leader (R-Cincinnati)
- State Rep. Brett Hillyer, Civil Justice Committee Chair (R-Cincinnati)
- Megan Fitzmartin, executive staffer for Stephens
When critiqued for his pick of Fitzmartin by rival Republicans, Stephens argued back that no one should be punished based on who they previously served.
Those were the only three to testify, however, plenty of other representatives, staffers and lobbyists still hold prominence within the Statehouse walls.
