Ohio House Bill 6

I would be remiss if I didn’t write about the massive scandal in Ohio politics from this past summer. In July, the FBI arrested now-former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four others in what U.S. Attorney David DeVillers called, “likely the largest bribery and money-laundering scheme ever in the state of Ohio.” 

In addition to Householder, Matt Borges, a lobbyist and former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Neil Clark, a lobbyist, Juan Cespedes, also a lobbyist, and Householder’s aide, Jeffrey Longstreth, were also charged. 

 

House Bill 6 promised a $1.3 billion, ratepayer bailout of nuclear energy company First Energy*. Householder pushed the bill through as $61 million in dark money flowed from First Energy to his own bank account and to campaigns of candidates that later elected Householder as speaker. According to the Ohio Capital Journal, “Householder, in turn, rammed through the bailout bill while he and his associates feathered their own nests with some of the FirstEnergy money.”

 

As we learned in class, 501(c)(4)s do not need to disclose donors, and campaign contributions transpire without public knowledge. Dan McCarthy, a former FirstEnergy lobbyist, created and Ran Partners for Progress, the dark money group that made it all happen. Ohio Capital Journal reports that, “FirstEnergy wired $5 million into the dark money group. Partners for Progress then passed $900,000 to Generation Now, Householder’s dark money group and $300,000 to other entities involved in the bailout, the federal criminal complaint says.”

 

To Ohio Attorney General David Yost, chains of dark money groups enabled the scandal. Yost endorses criminalizing such chains: “I would love to see a law that prevents one 501(c)(4) from giving to another 501(c)(4)… That would at least eliminate the shell game that we saw here.”

 

Yost is now suing Householder and his accessories. 

*Fun Fact: The company's name is on the side of the Cleveland Brown’s stadium