“I’m tired of his nonsense, this is embarrassing. He’s the weakest speaker we’ve ever had,” added Plummer, who said he plans on filing an ethics complaint and that he’s in communication with Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost’s office to see what his options are.
He said that he’s unsure if there’s any Ohio code that forbids Stephens’ actions but said that Yost “needs to file a criminal action” against Stephens if the speaker did break any laws.
“We’ve seen other people go to prison for mixing politics with policy. This isn’t far from that. It might be a gray area, but to me, you can’t dictate how we spend our campaign money,” Plummer said.
Plummer, the former Montgomery County sheriff, said he wouldn’t rule out attempting to remove Stephens from power via a House vote.
“In my former background, if you’re doing something that ain’t right, we’re gonna hold you accountable,” Plummer said.
This news organization reached out to the attorney general’s office for comment but did not immediately hear back from Yost’s team.
The Montgomery County representative was one of six chairs of Ohio House committees (appointed by Stephens) who was removed from his post — and from the committee altogether — after campaign finance records showed that they contributed significantly to the opponents of some of their peers in the House.
Plummer, who made a failed bid to become speaker of the House when this General Assembly began, donated $45,000 in three races last March. His goal was to unseat various GOP incumbents who teamed up with Democrats to elect Stephens into power.
Also removed as chairs were Preble County’s Rep. Rodney Creech; Warren County’s Rep. Scott Lipps; Richland County’s Rep. Marilyn John; and Clermont County’s Rep. Adam Bird.
“Those were good chairpeople doing good work,” Plummer said.
He argued that Stephens’ decision to remove the chairs “mixed politics with policy,” which he believes warrants further investigation from the state.
Last week, Stephens provided the following comment on his decision to remove the chairs: “Chairmen should be trustworthy and operate with integrity. The trust has been broken. What members can trust them at this point?”
On Tuesday, this news organization asked Stephens if his decision was made to ensure that those chairs couldn’t play favoritism moving forward, but the speaker backed away from that exact framing.
“I just thought it sent the right message to the rest of the caucus,” he replied.
This news organization then asked if he believes the chairs were not doing their job, to which he provided no clear answer.
“I think that’s a fair question, but I think, you know, the action was taken, we talked about that last week. We’re ready to move on,” he said.
Plummer viewed Stephens’ answers as distinctly different from the rationale he gave last week.
“He’s backed off that because he knows it’s a gray area,” Plummer said.
Plummer said he hoped that standing up to the speaker might redirect the focus of the scant time remaining in this general assembly.
“We’re not moving the ball forward for the citizens of Ohio,” Plummer said. “There are schools that are in trouble, people that are hungry, inflation’s out the roof, we’re not doing anything but playing games because of his lack of leadership.”
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