This newspaper story reveals that the Ohio Republican Party paid the legal expenses to the law firm that represented the individual who challenged the 2014 Libertarian primary petition for Charlie Earl. Earl was the party’s candidate for Governor, but because at the time all Ohio qualified parties nominated by primary, Earl had to get his name on the Libertarian Party primary ballot. His petition needed 500 signatures. It was challenged on the basis that the petition circulators didn’t fill out the blank on the form that asked who was paying them.

Only now has the news surfaced that the legal bill for the challenger was $300,000, and the Ohio Republican Party paid the bill.

The Libertarian Party had no candidate for Governor on the November ballot, so it went off the ballot. The party was on for two other statewide offices, and they polled almost 5% of the vote, but the Ohio law only counted the gubernatorial vote for purposes of retaining ballot status. Earl couldn’t be a write-in candidate in the Ohio Libertarian primary because the filing deadline for write-in candidates had already passed when he was removed from the ballot. That also explains who no other Libertarian could run for Governor in the party’s primary as a write-in.