Ohio Supreme Court fast-tracks lawsuit seeking to remove Caleb Stidham from House District 89 ballot

SANDUSKY, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court has ordered Secretary of State Frank LaRose and the Erie County Board of Elections to respond within days to a lawsuit seeking to remove Republican Caleb Stidham from the November ballot in Ohio House District 89.

The court on Monday placed the case on an expedited election schedule, ordering the respondents to answer the complaint by 4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 17, and barring requests for extensions.

The case, State ex rel. Koebel v. Erie County Board of Elections, was filed by former Ottawa County Commissioner Carl Koebel and asks the state’s highest court to overturn the certification that put Stidham on the Nov. 3 ballot.

The lawsuit puts before the Supreme Court the same dispute that deadlocked the Erie County Board of Elections 2-2 in August: whether the Republican committee that selected Stidham could legally conduct the selection behind closed doors and whether Stidham could participate in deliberations and vote in a process in which he was himself a candidate.

Stidham, the Erie County treasurer and chairman of the Erie County Republican Party, was one of three Republicans seeking the nomination after state Rep. D.J. Swearingen withdrew from the ballot Aug. 4.

He was also one of just six people empowered by state law to choose Swearingen’s replacement.

Under Ohio Revised Code 3513.31, a vacancy involving a legislative district spanning multiple counties is filled by a district committee consisting of the chairperson and secretary of each county party organization within the district. House District 89 includes Erie and Ottawa counties and part of Huron County, giving the committee six members.

The committee met Aug. 10 and selected Stidham by a 4-2 vote.

As TiffinOhio.net previously reported, Stidham left the room while competing candidates made their presentations but returned for the committee’s deliberations and participated in the vote.

Ottawa County Republican Party Secretary Toni DeLuca, one of the six committee members, publicly criticized the process afterward.

“The Chair of Erie County, Caleb Stidham, was asked to leave when other candidates spoke,” DeLuca wrote. “However, he joined the committee for deliberations. I found it odd that a candidate for a position was given the right to deliberate on other candidates.”

DeLuca described it as “a flawed process that allows a candidate to vote for himself on a committee of 6 people.”

Meeting was closed to the public

The Aug. 10 selection meeting was not open to the public.

MaryAnn Groot, a Democratic member of the Erie County Board of Elections, said in an affidavit submitted during the subsequent certification dispute that she went to the building where the selection was taking place and told Republican elections board members there that she believed the meeting was required to be public.

Groot said she was told it was a closed meeting and was directed to wait elsewhere.

When the nomination later came before the Erie County Board of Elections for certification, Democratic members Edward J. Leonard and Groot voted against putting Stidham on the ballot. Republicans John C. Adams and Gary L. Smith voted to certify him.

Leonard argued that the committee was not merely conducting internal Republican Party business because Ohio law had given it the power to determine who would replace a candidate previously nominated by voters and whose name would appear on the general election ballot.

“After reviewing the circumstances of the Republican District Committee meeting at which Caleb Stidham was selected, I have concluded that the meeting was not conducted in accordance with Ohio law,” Leonard wrote in a statement before the Aug. 14 vote.

He argued the meeting should have been public and that Stidham should not have participated in the deliberations or vote involving his own candidacy.

The 2-2 split sent the dispute to LaRose under state law.

LaRose certified Stidham

LaRose broke the tie Aug. 20 in Stidham’s favor, clearing the way for him to appear on the November ballot.

LaRose rejected the argument that the closed meeting prevented Stidham from being certified.

“Respectfully, this certification vote is not the proper forum for an extra-judicial expansion of Ohio’s open meetings laws beyond their established statutory application,” LaRose wrote in his decision.

Stidham has also rejected accusations that his participation presented a conflict of interest.

“There seems to be some confusion; there is no conflict of interest because I did not lead or chair the meeting that selected me as the candidate,” Stidham told NBC4 in August.

Huron County Republican Chairman Sven Stahl chaired the selection meeting because Stidham was a candidate. Stidham nevertheless participated in the committee’s deliberations and vote.

Ohio’s vacancy statute does not expressly require a committee member who is seeking the nomination to abstain, and it does not expressly state that the committee’s meeting must be open to the public. Whether other provisions of Ohio law required an open meeting is now part of the dispute before the Supreme Court.

Lawsuit asks court to block certification

Koebel’s lawsuit argues that the Republican district committee was exercising authority created by state law that directly determined whose name would appear on an election ballot and therefore could not carry out that function through closed deliberations.

The petition further argues that election officials should not certify a replacement nominee when there is evidence that the process used to make the selection failed to comply with Ohio law.

“This case is not about who the Republican Party should have selected as its nominee. It is about whether the process required by Ohio law was followed,” attorney Gina R. Grandillo, who represents Koebel, said in a statement.

“When a political committee is exercising statutory authority that determines whose name will appear on the ballot, the public has a legitimate interest in ensuring that process is lawful and transparent,” Grandillo said. “We are asking the Supreme Court to review what occurred and determine whether this certification can legally stand.”

Christopher E. Liebold, who is representing Koebel with Grandillo, said the approaching election makes a quick decision necessary.

“Ohio’s election laws establish a process for filling a vacancy on the ballot, and those requirements matter,” Liebold said. “Voters deserve confidence that candidates are placed on the ballot through a process that complies with the law.”

The lawsuit asks the Supreme Court to order LaRose to deny Stidham’s certification and direct the Erie County Board of Elections not to place him on the ballot.

Alternatively, Koebel asks the court to return the matter to the elections board with instructions to investigate whether the replacement selection complied with Ohio law.

Supreme Court accelerates case

The Supreme Court’s Sept. 14 order makes clear that the dispute will move quickly.

The court ordered the Erie County Board of Elections and LaRose to answer by 4 p.m. Thursday and directed all remaining filings to proceed under the court’s expedited election-case rules.

It also prohibited either side from requesting additional time, directing the clerk not to accept requests or agreements seeking extensions.

The court has not ruled on Koebel’s claims or determined that the Republican committee’s selection of Stidham violated Ohio law.

Stidham is currently the Republican nominee against Democrat Easton Retzke in the Nov. 3 election. Former Republican state Rep. Steve Kraus is also running as a write-in candidate.