Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder is a federal prisoner. That should give everyone else in state government with their hands in the cookie jar pause, right? A once-powerful head of the Statehouse is facing 20 years behind bars for orchestrating the largest public corruption scandal in Ohio history. That’s enough of a deterrent for Householder’s fellow politicians to walk the straight and narrow, isn’t it?
If only Ohio’s national news last week when a federal judge threw the book at the former president may have raised a few eyebrows in Columbus, but not many. Embezzlement in public office went from shocking to systematic years ago in the state.
The dirty dance of lawmakers, lobbyists and undisclosed donors is the capital’s culture. Ambitious pols getting rich and advancing their careers through dark money networks and corrupt activity that goes under the radar is “business as usual”, Householder’s lawyer argued.
His client (and former Ohio Republican Party lobbyist/Chairman Matt Borges) has just been caught dead in bribery and extortion. But they are far from the only ones motivated by greed and power to bend the law for lucrative profits. The back door, under the table, out of sight negotiation is writing legislation now which is bought and paid for by special interest.
It’s business as usual in Ohio and getting worse.
Here’s how the billion-dollar bailout of a major utility became law and withstood repeal. FirstEnergy is an influential force in Ohio politics. For decades he has fattened his palms with large campaign checks to collect corporate dividends. Ohio House Bill 6 was a crowning achievement.
But nothing about HB 6 was over the top from the start, and everyone knew it. Those intimately involved in shepherding the bill through the legislature were well aware of the aggressive efforts the utility giant and its affiliates were taking to get HB 6 passed. The move was tailor-made for a company seeking government documents to support two former , uncompetitive nuclear plants.
FirstEnergy had to close the deal. So he laundered more than $60 million through an elaborate network of dark money groups to get it. Householder orchestrated the plan, spearheaded HB 6 through the Statehouse, and helped himself to a windfall of ill-gotten gains. It was an easy mark for the Akron-based company that has long understood how to buy politicians bent on boosting their careers.
The owner and many others in the General Assembly and state office gladly accepted money from FirstEnergy to win at the polls. In 2018, FirstEnergy pumped $1 million into groups that helped elect Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, according to a Dayton Daily News investigation.
The company also supported DeWine’s daughter’s failed bid for county attorney.
In 2019, the governor switched to FirstEnergy. He was an unfailing champion of HB 6. He appointed the state utility regulator that FirstEnergy lobbied for despite warnings about Sam Randazzo’s extensive ties to the company.
DeWine stood by his PUCO pick even as reports emerged about the chairman pocketing a pre-appointment bribe from FirstEnergy (which the company later admitted was $4.3 million dollars) to draft HB 6 and get it across the finish line. Nuclear plant bailout on the backs of Ohio taxpayers approved. Business as usual.
FirstEnergy kept the pressure and the money flowing to stop a ballot initiative that threatened to eliminate the corporate rip-off. Government subsidies for FirstEnergy’s nuclear plants got the green light in 2019. But by then the feds had considered Householder’s criminal enterprise to pass HB 6 and get elected president.
It was public corruption on a historic scale. The scope of the racketeering conspiracy to buy political power in exchange for $1.3 billion in public service subsidies was breathtaking. A stealthy one Maze of non-profits laundering untraceable dollars to elect family loyalists, to buy votes for the bailout bill, and to poison subsequent repeal efforts.
The twice-elected House Speaker’s greed, flush with obscene amounts of cash and control, undid him and the pay-to-play operation he thought was his ticket to fame and fortune. The master of the house was seduced by the possibilities of what something else “anonymous rivers of money” could buy him personally and politically, and he even plotted a constitutional change that would extend the years of his speakership beyond current term limits.
Yet tellingly, even after a prominent legislative leader was arrested and indicted in the stunning bribery and racketeering probe, House Republicans questioned whether his crimes actually rose to the level of impeachment. of the chamber A staunch Householder advocate insisted that members could only be expelled for “disorderly conduct” which, he implied, did not include being federally indicted for selling legislation.
The corrupt speaker lost his coveted leadership position but remained in office as a voting representative almost a year before his fellow lawmakers finally kicked him out of state government. HB 6, the rotten-to-the-core law that Householder was paid to enact, is still the law in Ohio, minus the nuclear subsidies that were grudgingly removed.
But a utility-friendly rider on scandal-plagued HB 6 that forced taxpayers to subsidize two hyper-polluting, money-losing coal plants to the tune of $400 million. Bye now – it is here to stay. One of those plants is in the Republican speaker’s current district, and he’s fine with the bailouts hidden in a bill at the heart of Ohio’s biggest bribery scandal.
Business as usual.
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