Smith Submits Complaint, Public Records Request to Secretary of State's Office

This week, state Senator Kent Smith (D-Euclid) submitted a complaint and public records request to Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s office after the Ramaswamy campaign committee continued to omit critical campaign finance information from its reports.

“Since it was reported almost a month ago that the Secretary of State’s preferred candidate for governor had not disclosed what his campaign spent more than half a million dollars on, the Ohio public has been left in the dark as to why this lack of transparency is not being pursued with more urgency,” said Smith. “Campaign finance laws exist because Ohioans deserve to know what their candidates are spending campaign funds on. This is especially true if that candidate is running for the highest statewide office. That is what we’re trying to get to the bottom of.”

Following a report from The Ohio Capital Journal that Vivek Ramaswamy’s gubernatorial campaign had spent more than half a million dollars without disclosing what that money was spent on, as required by Ohio law, Senator Smith filed an initial complaint regarding the campaign’s failure to disclose the specifics of its expenditures. 

“If you are a candidate for governor or leading a statewide office with oversight responsibilities, it should not take a member of the Statehouse press corps and an inquiry from a state senator to get you to follow Ohio law or do your job,” said Smith.

Subsequently, Smith submitted an additional complaint this week, pointing out that the campaign committee amended the list of expenditures, but still failed to provide an accurate date of purchase. The public records request seeks communication between the Secretary of State and the Ramaswamy campaign regarding these expenditure reports to see if any meaningful action, either recently or a year ago, was taken to get the campaign into legal compliance.