The Ohio Republican Party paid $300,000 to the law firm involved with successfully keeping would-be Libertarian gubernatorial candidate Charlie Earl off last year’s ballot, according to Ohio Elections Commission filings. The payments, detailed by attorneys representing Gov. John Kasich’s re-election campaign and GOP activist Terry Casey, came after Republican Party Chair Matt Borges denied in federal court last year that his party was behind the challenge to Earl’s candidacy. Casey and Kasich’s campaign brought up the payments as evidence that Kasich’s re-election campaign did not collude to disqualify Earl, as the Libertarian alleges in an elections commission complaint.
According to separate motions filed earlier this month by Casey and Kasich’s campaign, the Ohio Republican Party made three separate payments to the law firm of Zeiger, Tigges and Little between November 2014 and February of this year.
Those payments were documented on campaign finance reports submitted to the Ohio secretary of state’s office.
When the Libertarians filed a federal lawsuit to try to force Earl’s name on the ballot, Borges testified in March 2014 that the party did not pay any money to fund the pair’s cases.
Full Article: Ohio Republican Party paid $300,000 in legal bills to keep Libertarian candidate off ballot | cleveland.com.