Volume 82, Issue 6
Saturday, June 19, 2021
Finance and Felony Ryder Fried, Victor Kallon & Jack Wolf, Reporters
The office of the Inspector General has launched a bombshell investigation into irregularities throughout Governor Cael. J Saxton’s campaign. On Friday, the office’s completed report was disclosed to The Hetuck. For transparency purposes, it is important to note that The Hetuck had a simultaneous ongoing investigation into the Governor's campaign and can confirm many of the details laid in the report. It is under Buckeye Boys State policy that state office candidates must fill out an expenditure form covering all campaign costs. The Saxton campaign noted in their official expenditure form that they had spent $0 on advertising. This raised obvious eyebrows, leading to a deep dive into the Saxton campaign by both the Hetuck and the Inspector General. Details of the Inspector General’s report will be summarized below. In filing the expenditure form, the Saxton campaign initially noted that they had received nine $20 donations and one $300 donation from Seth Coyle, county chair of Deweese County. This $300 donation explicitly violates regulations listed in the Buckeye Boys State Gold Book. The $300 donation was later ripped up and was never cashed. However, the Saxton campaign claimed they had actually received eleven $20 donations, as opposed to the nine initially mentioned. The extra two donations were turned in 24 hours late by the Saxton campaign. Saxton’s campaign was the last one to turn in the expenditure forms, having done so considerably after the deadline. Hetuck staff was curious about the $300 donation, even if it was never cashed. Reporters Jack Wolf and Ryder Fried interviewed Mr. Coyle on the afternoon of June 16th. In this discussion, Coyle admitted that he helped design and distribute Saxton's advertisements. However, Coyle did not purchase these advertisements from Campaign Headquarters. When asked who bought the advertising materials, Mr. Coyle brought up Governor Saxton and Lt. Governor Benjamin Lerner. Coyle said, “They bought the materials.” This directly contradicts Saxton’s written pledge of $0 spent in advertising at Campaign Supply Headquarters. Coyle’s confession obtained by The Hetuck is not the only evidence proving Saxton’s $0 spending claim to be inaccurate. The Inspector General was able to find one of Saxton’s pay stubs of $200 directed to Campaign Supply Headquarters. This is just further proof against Saxton's claim of $0 spent. The fact that Saxton spent his own money on campaign advertising leads to the assumption that his $0 claim was not a ‘clerical error’ (like Saxton claims all of the irregularities in his campaign to be). It can be inferred that opposed to a ‘clerical error,’ Saxton’s $0 pledge was a fraudulent claim, and moreover, likely a lie (The inference previously stated was not a part of the Inspector General’s report, but rather a seemingly obvious assumption based on the $200 check found by the Inspector General). Lerner, however, never pledged to not buying campaign advertising. The Inspector General’s report says that Lerner spent $500 on advertising along with the $350 fee for running for Lt. Governor. This puts his expenditures at $850. When arriving on campus, each delegate at Buckeye Boys State was given $600. During the campaign process, no running candidate had a permanent occupation, so no income was coming in via salary, meaning $600 was all the money Lerner directly received. This means that Lerner spent $850 and only had $600, putting him at a $250 deficit. This also implies that the Continued on pg 2