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Lake County Dark Money Group, A Better Lake County, Linked to Householder Attorney and Local Operatives

By Contributing Writer on March 6, 2023

March 6, 2023

By Lake County resident

[LFC Comments: We offer a platform to all Lake County residents on both sides of any issue to ensure that their voices can be heard.

Updated: 3/7/23 9:09 am

Brian Massie, Director of Lobbyists for Citizens, is and has been a huge proponent of the Lake County Board of Elections and its Director, Ross McDonald, Assistant Director, Dante Lewis, and the entire staff. They work diligently for the citizens of Lake County to ensure free and fair elections for all, regardless of political party. They have been extremely generous with their time to ensure that we understand the election process. Any accusations or aspersions directed at any individual or entity in this article is strictly the opinions of the writer of the article.

If anyone has a rebuttal to this article, please send your response to LobbyistsforCitizens@gmail.com.

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Lake County Dark Money Group, A Better Lake County, Linked to Householder Attorney and Local Operatives

Would you be surprised to know that there is a dark money group right here in Lake County? The group ironically called “A Better Lake County” paid thousands of dollars during last fall’s campaigns on ads largely targeting Commissioner John Plecnik.

A Better Lake County is being run by a Democratic operative and chair of the Lake County Young Democrats Dan Crowder. Crowder is running A Better Lake County like a political action committee, but political action committees must disclose their donors. Instead, while there is nothing charitable about it, Crowder and the people behind A Better Lake County appear to be falsely claiming to be a nonprofit so they can hide who’s paying for these slimy ads–ads which absurdly accuse Plecnik, a fierce supporter of police, of defunding the police among other baseless attacks.

You might also know Dan Crowder as former Democratic County Commissioner and current Mentor Economic Development Director Kevin Malecek’s campaign manager in 2016. Is Mr. Malecek also involved? Dan Crowder also used to work at the Lake County Board of Elections. Is the Democrat Director of the Board of Elections Ross MacDonald [sic] looking the other way on the obvious political activity of this supposed charity?

Who else do we know is involved with this shady group? A quick look at the Ohio Secretary of State’s website shows A Better Lake County was started by Scott Pullins, an attorney from Knox County, Ohio.

Who is Scott Pullins and why would a Knox County lawyer want to set up a dark money group in Lake County? Scott Pullins is a failed Republican candidate for Township Trustee and State Representative, who is widely known as a close ally and attorney of disgraced former Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder. Pullins even bragged on his law firm website that he was a “top advisor ” of Householder’s and was paid by Householder as recently as this year.

Worse, Pullins was disbarred for four years and unable to practice law for his outrageous behavior. No wonder he’s the go-to attorney to set up a seemingly illegal dark money group like A Better Lake County.

PICTURES

Ohio Secretary of State shows Scott Pullins created A Better Lake County