A former Ohio statehouse speaker named Larry Householder, a Republican, is currently on trial for corruption in Cincinnati. Prosecutors allege that he conspired with an Ohio-based energy company to accept and distribute bribes in exchange for an agreement to direct the company $1.3 billion in state funds, but that’s not what this post is about. The post, rather, is about this:
Jessie Balmert is an Ohio-based reporter covering the trial, and the leadership list is germane (I think) because part of Householder’s alleged scheme involved making sure that enough money was spread around via campaign funds to ensure that he’d be selected as speaker in 2019.
More to the point, though, the list is egregiously direct about superficial demographic balancing—which, though obviously a constant concern of both major parties—is rarely discussed publicly or in such a reductive way. It is also of note that the Republican Party’s conception of appropriate balance was to find literally any woman to fill the least senior role on a six-person leadership team otherwise occupied by men. (Yes, yes—they probably used a binder for the task.)
The GOP team does at least appear to have kept his promise, as a Columbus-area representative named Laura Lanese served as assistant majority whip during the subsequent term. Lanese, who chose not to run for reelection in 2022 and is now the president and CEO of the Inter-University Council of Ohio, has not yet responded to a request for comment on her experience as WOMAN, or about whether she is aware that she was WOMAN in the first place.
