The Columbus Dispatch
Stalking, intimidation, harassment and assaults by a fierce counter-campaign put enormous cost and pressure on the team trying to collect signatures for a ballot referendum.
“It was like a war zone out there,” said Michael Roberson, CEO of Advanced Micro Targeting, the firm hired to collect signatures in 2019 for a referendum against House Bill 6.
Testifying in federal court on Tuesday, Roberson described how the counter-campaign created disturbances, stalked his employees and poached his workers by hiring them away or giving them money and a plane ticket out of town.
Ultimately, they fell short and didn’t get enough signatures to put the referendum on the ballot.
“A lot of firms fail in this business. But we don’t, or very rarely,” said Roberson, a former Republican state senator and lieutenant governor candidate. “This project was hell for everyone involved.”
Roberson testified in the federal racketeering conspiracy trial of former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder and ex-Ohio Republican Party chairman Matt Borges. Roberson’s company made $8 million from the failed ballot collection effort, but some was used to pay companies brought on to collect more signatures.
Both have pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, a charge that carries up to 20 years in prison. Their federal trial is entering week five.
‘I really need your vote’ Householder pressured lawmakers
Former state representative Laura Lanese, who now leads the Inter-University Council, testified that she was surprised when Householder asked her to join his leadership team and described how she was pressured to vote for House Bill 6, legislation that she viewed as bad policy.
“Laura, I really need your vote,” Householder told her. She immediately replied, “I’m sorry I can’t give that to you Mr. Speaker.”
Lanese testified that she lost sleep for months over her “no” vote against “the speaker’s signature piece of legislation” and the pressure it brought. “It’s different when you go up against one of your colleagues versus the one who controls your campaign.”
Lanese testified that Borges did not lobby her on House Bill 6.
