Luckie is under federal indictment for 49 counts of criminal activity in one of the largest FBI investigations of the Ohio Democratic Caucus in Ohio legislative history. Forty-five of these counts, such as theft in office and money laundering, are felonies. Speaker of the House William Batchelder (R-Medina) immediately called for Luckie's resignation when the indictment was issued more than a month ago.
"Enough is enough and the fact that Clayton Luckie continues to take a taxpayer paycheck while facing charges of lying, cheating, and stealing is a disgrace to the Democrat Caucus and an outrageous affront to the people of his district," said Bennett. "Lukie has four times as many felony charges as Bernie Madoff and he still hasn't resigned."
"Chairman Redfern, Minority Leader Budish, and other top Democrats offered lip service and slaps to Luckie's wrist, but have done absolutely nothing meaningful to remove Luckie from office," said Bennett. "Democrat party leaders can force Luckie to resign today."
On November 14, 2006, Luckie, supported by former Governor Ted Strickland, was appointed by the Democrat Party to the 39th House District seat that was vacated by Dixie Allen after she left her seat to run for county commissioner as a Republican. Luckie's October 10th indictment is a result of a continuing investigation by the FBI, which began 19 months ago, into the issue of payday lending legislation in the Ohio General Assembly.
The same investigation resulted in the conviction of former Democrat State Representative Carlton Weddington to three-year prison sentence for bribery, election falsification, and ethics violations. Weddington resigned from office after he was indicted.
