Ex-Ohio Speaker Larry Householder's portrait removed: 'It just didn't need to be there.'

It took Ohio lawmakers 11 months to expel former Speaker Larry Householder from the House.

But it took less than a week for Speaker Jason Stephens, R-Kitts Hill, to remove Householder's portrait from the halls of the Ohio House of Representatives following Householder's conviction in the state's largest bribery scheme.

"I had it taken down," Stephens said in a statement. "It just didn't need to be there."

The Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board removed the portrait Wednesday morning at Stephens' request. The portrait is now in CSRAB's collections room, executive director Laura Battocletti said.

Last week, jurors found Householder and former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges guilty of racketeering conspiracy for trading nearly $61 million from Akron-based FirstEnergy and its allies for a $1.3 billion nuclear bailout. They face up to 20 years in prison and await sentencing.

Householder was arrested in July 2020 and was stripped of the speaker's gavel within days. But he wasn't removed from the Ohio House of Representatives until June 2021.

Householder knows a little something about moving portraits. He removed former Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson's portrait from the House chamber in 2019. Davidson's portrait was restored after Householder was removed as speaker.

Jessie Balmert is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

Get more political analysis by listening to the Ohio Politics Explained podcast

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ex-Ohio Speaker Larry Householder's portrait removed