Ohio Capital Journal: Even before office move is complete, Ohio Sec. of State LaRose appears to blur ethical lines

LaRose hasn’t responded to repeated questions from the Capital Journal about the move. But it would be improper for him to engage in campaign activities in the downtown Columbus building, said Mia Lewis of Common Cause Ohio, because it’s vital to keep the work of running a fair election walled off from that of trying to win one.

“You have to keep the campaign and the government work separate,” she said. “Once those things start to blur, it becomes harder and harder for voters to trust their elected officials.”

Lewis, of Common Cause, said the fact that it’s even plausible that LaRose might have recorded his interview with Bannon from state-leased space is reason enough to house the state’s election administrator in a building separate from one in which LaRose’s campaign is registered.

“Good fences make good neighbors,” she said. “You put up barriers to make sure nobody is tempted to take that shortcut. If your office as secretary of state is downtown and you have to drive somewhere else in order to do your campaign work, well there’s a reason for that. That’s to try to make sure you’re not cutting those corners. How easy it’s going to be and how tempting it’s going to be to cut those corners when the office is just upstairs or just downstairs.”

“This man is our secretary of state,” Lewis said. “He’s supposed to be in charge of elections in Ohio. And yet he seems to spend an incredible amount of his time putting his thumb on the scale of one issue or another — openly campaigning for one result or another.”

She added, “Now he’s running for office himself and the fact that he doesn’t see that it is unseemly at the very least to be operating as secretary of state while in the same building you’re running your campaign for Senate at the same time. How are Ohioans supposed to trust you when you have so much trouble putting the voters first?”

 

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