Keith Faber’s Burn Book
Keith Faber has developed a reputation with his colleagues at the Statehouse — and let’s just say it’s not great.
Most Ambitious, Most Humorless, Least Compassionate, Most Arrogant, Most Aggressive Campaign Fundraiser
Yikes.
Faber rose to the top of the Republican ranks while he was in the Ohio Senate, mainly because the last superlative — “Most Aggressive Campaign Fundraiser” — outweighed all of the others. That’s how the Ohio Statehouse works under GOP leadership.
While Faber only had tough love from his colleagues in the Statehouse, he’s been in a committed relationship for a number of years with one industry — for-profit charter school operators.
It was reported last week that the biggest such operator in Ohio in recent decades — the Electronic Classroom of Tomorrow (ECOT) — is now the subject of an FBI inquiry into possibly illegal campaign donations.
No state legislator has more actively, aggressively and consistently advanced ECOT’s interests in the General Assembly than Keith Faber. So it’s no coincidence that Faber accepted more campaign cash from ECOT founder Bill Lager and other ECOT affiliates than any other Republican statewide candidate this cycle. Faber hauled in a total of $36,513.34 from ECOT, and he raised $56,365.53 for the Republican Senate Campaign Committee as its chairman from 2013–16.
Late last week, Faber — like other Republican statewide candidates Mike DeWine, Dave Yost, and Frank LaRose — offloaded the tainted ECOT cash from his campaign account. Unlike DeWine, LaRose and Yost, though, Faber did not donate the dirty money to charitable organizations, but instead to other “high-quality” charter schools.
In a statement accompanying the return of the $36,513, Faber claimed that “thanks to the strong charter school reforms put in place while I was Senate President… ECOT was caught and is out of business.”
These claims drew immediate laughs from across the state, and the Columbus Dispatch cited independent observers who recall “Faber as one of the legislature’s staunchest defenders of ECOT.”
To make matters worse, a mere five hours after Faber cleared the ECOT cash from his campaign account, the Dispatch reported that the FBI is probing ECOT and Bill Lager for a straw political donation scheme.
This is the second FBI investigation into Ohio Republicans announced since April. The nation’s top law enforcement agency is also investigating disgraced former Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger’s relationship with the predatory payday lending industry, from whom Keith Faber has accepted over $74,000 in campaign contributions in exchange for numerous legislative favors.
Faber’s sputtering campaign is not adapting well to being pressed for honesty or held accountable for his legislative record. Faber is learning the hard way that running for statewide office is very different than campaigning in a ruby-red legislative district or jockeying for power on Capitol Square.
Zack Space, a former U.S. Congressman and the Democratic nominee for Auditor of State, has based his campaign on fighting against the influence of money in politics, holding for-profit charter schools like ECOT accountable and ending partisan gerrymandering in Ohio when he serves on the Redistricting Commission — issues the vast majority of Ohioans agree with.
Faber’s association with virtually every unsavory actor on Capitol Square and his brazen pay-to-play record make him a poor candidate with a weak campaign. And his inappropriate relationship with ECOT completely disqualifies him from serving as chief watchdog of Ohioans’ tax dollars as Auditor of State.
This fall, it will be the voters who decide on Keith Faber’s new superlative — and it will be Most Likely to Be Looking for Work as Former Legislator.
