“The FBI is investigating ECOT’s campaign donations and their abuse of taxpayer money in what is becoming one of the largest political corruption scandals in Ohio history, yet Troy Balderson has no shame about hanging onto ECOT’s dirty money. Central Ohio voters deserve answers.” – DCCC spokesperson Jacob Peters
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Sen. Balderson won’t give up ECOT campaign cash| Columbus Dispatch
May 20, 2018
By Darrel Rowland
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180520/sen-balderson-wont-give-up-ecot-campaign-cash
The past couple of weeks have been filled with Ohio politicians discarding campaign contributions from ECOT. But a few quibblers insist on hanging onto the cash.
Count state Sen. Troy Balderson, GOP nominee in the 12th Congressional District, among them.
“Troy Balderson’s campaign for Congress has not taken any money from ECOT,” spokesman Brad Shattuck told Jessica Wehrman of the Dispatch Washington bureau.
Well, sure. Balderson’s been a congressional candidate for only a few months. Longtime Rep. Pat Tiberi just gave up the seat in January, about the time ECOT shut down and long after the online school’s founder Bill Lager gave his last campaign contribution.
The $10,000 Balderson got from Lager came during the Zanesville Republican’s state legislative tenure: a $5,000 check in October 2010 and another in July 2015.
The campaign would not respond to Wehrman’s follow-up questions about the ECOT money in the state fund. The radio silence was typical of the campaign last week as numerous calls and emails from Wehrman and Washington bureau Chief Jack Torry largely were ignored.
In all, Lager and others associated with ECOT gave about $2.5 million in state campaign contributions, a Dispatch analysis shows — about 93 percent to Republicans who’ve controlled the governor’s office and legislature for most of the 18 years the school was open.
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