Merrin campaign responds to new Kaptur ad calling for his indictment
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - It‘s the latest chapter in what’s been a bruising campaign for Ohio’s 9th Congressional District.
Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur from Toledo is trying to secure her 22nd term in the U.S. House of Representatives. She’s been in Congress longer than any woman in history.
Her challenger in November is State Rep. Derek Merrin (R-Monclova), who is term-limited in the Ohio House of Representatives.
Kaptur‘s campaign has aired a series of ads criticizing Merrin for supporting a nuclear bailout bill that was at the center of Ohio’s largest public corruption scandal in state history.
Her campaign’s latest ad calls for Merrin to face criminal charges.
“Dirty Derek Merrin. He’s so dirty, he should be indicted,” an announcer says in the ad.
Federal prosecutors said former House Speaker Larry Householder led the bribery scheme. He is serving a 20-year prison sentence on racketeering charges. Ohio’s former Republican Party chairman, Matt Borges, is serving five years in prison.
Prosecutors said FirstEnergy secretly spent tens of millions of dollars to help elect House candidates who would support Householder’s bid for speaker and help him pass a $1 billion bailout of its failing nuclear power plants, including Davis-Besse in Oak Harbor.
Merrin was one of the lawmakers who received money from Householder’s PAC. None of them, aside from Householder, have faced charges. He was also among a group of 20 lawmakers who voted against expelling Householder from office. Merrin introduced a series of ethics reforms in 2023 in response to the scheme.
Merrin’s campaign took issue with the ad calling for his indictment.
“This is a desperate and pathetic attempt to distract voters from Marcy Kaptur’s failed policies that have left Northwest Ohioans behind,” Merrin’s campaign spokesperson, Emily Benavides, said in a statement. “Marcy Kaptur continues to make baseless and false attacks against Derek Merrin because she is unable to defend her 41 year track record of being a rubber stamp of the radical Biden/Harris agenda, failing to secure the border, and allowing good manufacturing jobs to leave Northwest Ohio. Out of touch politicians like Marcy Kaptur are the reason why we need term limits, and Northwest Ohioans are eagerly awaiting the fresh leadership that Derek Merrin will bring to Congress this November.”
Merrin campaign officials also pointed to a series of donations made from a FirstEnergy Political Action Committee to Kaptur’s campaign over the years totaling tens of thousands of dollars.
A spokesperson for Kaptur‘s campaign pushed back. He said the PAC contributing money to her is different than the one Householder set up because it’s more transparent and funded by employees who she represents.
“Derek Merrin took money from a now-imprisoned official who was convicted for bribing politicians like Merrin to vote for a billion dollar bailout,” said Jake Strassberger, a spokesman for Kaptur’s campaign. “Merrin voted for that billion dollar corporate bailout and it hiked electric bills for Ohio families. Merrin was so grateful for the cash, that he voted for the same official to remain in the House AFTER he was indicted and the FBI raided his home. Instead of pointing fingers and blaming other people for his own shady decisions, Merrin should apologize for raising prices for Ohio’s working families and return the money he accepted from Householder’s campaign funding scheme.”
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