Friday, October 02, 2020

Ohio legislature's foot-dragging on HB 6 repeal fuels public concerns, points to 'dark money' influence

What can be done to reduce the influence of dark money on Ohio energy policy?

This article provided by Eye on Ohio, the nonprofit, nonpartisan Ohio Center for Journalism in partnership with the nonprofit Energy News Network.


The arrest of former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and others in July revealed how the use of dark money organizations enabled an alleged $60 million conspiracy to sway elections and provide costly bailouts to noncompetitive nuclear and coal plants.

As federal and state court cases move forward, questions remain about what can be done to restore confidence in the legislature and to prevent similar situations in the future.

“Dark money is really how special interests win right now,” said Jay Costa, executive director at Voters’ Right To Know. When corporations use shell groups to hide their political spending, they “gain a level of credibility they wouldn’t otherwise have,” he explained. “I like to think of it as the ‘Wizard of Oz’ effect.”

In other words, voters don’t get to see who’s behind the curtain.

Two months after the federal government’s crimin-al complaint and indictment in July, Ohio Attorney General David Yost has filed a state court lawsuit. The complaint alleges a “pattern of corrupt activity,” and seeks injunctive relief to prevent FirstEnergy, FirstEnergy Solutions, Energy Harbor and others from reaping benefits from the bailouts under House Bill 6. A hearing on a preliminary motion for that relief is currently scheduled for Friday, Oct. 2.

Meanwhile, it’s unclear whether Ohio lawmakers will actually repeal House Bill 6, the bailout law passed as a result of the alleged conspiracy. Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers called for a swift repeal in late July and early August. However, leadership in the Ohio House has so far refused to allow a full House vote on any pending repeal bills.


‘Dragging their feet’

“They’re just dragging their feet,” said Rep. David Leland, D-Columbus. “We have 58 members of the legislature who are willing to repeal HB 6 right now.”

Instead, Speaker Robert Cupp, R-Lima, has referred the bill to a House Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight. So far, those hearings have largely been a general review of the pros and cons of HB 6, rather than a focused oversight of the alleged corruption that led to its passage and whether it should be repealed in order to repair any claimed harm to public trust in the legislature’s integrity.

“The only way that we can prove that Ohio is not for sale is by repealing HB 6,” Leland said. “The polling we’ve seen shows that people by an overwhelming margin are going to punish those people who have voted for HB 6 and have done nothing to repeal it.” Early and absentee voting in Ohio begins on Oct. 6.

“Our legislators are supposed to act in the public interest,” said political scientist Leah Stokes at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Corporations’ interests may sometimes conflict. But, she adds, “it’s really politicians’ and regulators’ job not to be listening to those special interests. That basic responsibility of democracy has failed in Ohio with House Bill 6.”

A straight repeal would mostly restore Ohio energy law to before HB 6 became effective, subject to some follow-up regulatory matters before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. A quick replacement could potentially reenact all or much of the law, which also gutted the state’s clean energy standards.  

Advocates say that rushing to ram through anything more than a simple repeal this year would either just repeat bad policy or create more problems, even aside the alleged conspiracy’s past influence on the current makeup of the Ohio House of Representatives. Even at that, a repeal bill would now need either an emergency clause or an injunction sought by the state attorney general in order to stop the nuclear subsidies slated to start in January. The committee adjourned on Sept. 30 and no additional meetings are currently scheduled.

HB 6 “is so questionable at this moment. The vehicle itself and the way it was sold is all just a pack of lies,” said Rachael Belz, executive director of Ohio Citizen Action. “We need them to repeal it, and then we need to go from there.” And that second step will take time, she said.

“It’s complicated and complex legislation and policy. And we have to get it right,” said Chris Neme, a principal and co-founder of Energy Futures Group. “Passing a bill in less than a couple of months like the way HB 6 was just leads us down the road of unintended consequences.”


Shining a light on dark money

The bigger question is how to prevent similar abuses in the future. Utilities and fossil fuel interests have given heavily to Ohio political campaigns since the state enacted a 1999 law calling for competition in electricity generation. And the level of giving went up dramatically once a competitive market actually began to develop in the state.

Utilities’ political spending has continued during this election season. FirstEnergy spokesperson Jennifer Young said that its political action committee has since canceled campaign donations it had originally reported as going out in July shortly before Householder’s arrest.

Campaign donations shown for August have in fact been sent out, Young said. FirstEnergy has denied any wrongdoing in connection with its political donations or the alleged Householder scandal.

Meanwhile, a 2010 Supreme Court case, Citizens United, “really opened up the floodgates of fossil fuel and electric utility influence over politics,” Stokes said. Utilities’ political spending is “particularly pernicious,” in her view, because customers “have to buy from these companies” to get electricity delivered to their homes.

At the same time, reporting requirements currently apply only to immediate spenders on political issues and campaigns. They don’t reach all the way up the chain to the original source of the money.

“It’s basically this Russian nesting doll scenario, where you have one donor giving to another donor, giving to another donor, to get to the person who finally spends the money to influence the voters,” Costa explained.

In the case of HB 6, money flowed into Generation Now from multiple sources, with a lion’s share allegedly originating with Company A — understood to be FirstEnergy — and its subsidiaries, according to the federal complaint.

Some of the money in turn then went to a political action committee. Or, it went to other organizations that directly funded pro-HB 6 ads. One such ad claimed a debunked Chinese conspiracy was behind last year’s failed effort to put a referendum on the law on the ballot this fall. A for-profit group called Ohioans for Energy Security paid for that ad. When asked last year, lawyers at the firm that set up the corporation, Isaac Wiles, would not answer questions about the source of its funding.  

“The notion that dark money is something some people don’t like is not part of the elements of the crime,” Mark Weaver, an attorney at that firm, said at a Columbus Metropolitan Club forum after news broke about the Householder arrest. He noted that the alleged $60 million in bribes and dark money donations “pales in comparison” to the amount that Americans spend on Halloween candy and costumes every year. And he claimed that the First Amendment guarantees a right to conduct political spending anonymously.

However, the 1995 case that Weaver cited distinguished earlier cases requiring disclosure for corporate spending. And the Supreme Court’s opinion in Citizens United stated that “prompt disclosure of expenditures can provide shareholders and citizens with the information needed to hold corporations and elected officials accountable for their positions and supporters.”

“There is no absolute right to anonymous speech,” said attorney Ian Vandewalker at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. Elections are treated differently from general speech, because of the overriding interest in making sure elections function properly, he explained at a panel organized by the League of Women Voters of Ohio.

“That requires informed voters. And it requires policies to not be able to cheat the public,” Vandewalker said. “And so those interests require that there be a level of transparency.”

“No regulation, no law, no set of ethical rules substitutes for American voters paying attention to who’s running for office — pressing them hard on what they stand for, looking closely at the issues, and going into the ballot box having done your homework,” Weaver said.

“The reason that information is important and transparency is important is so that voters are educated,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio. “You can’t make the argument that voters need to be better educated but you shouldn’t give them actual education. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Moreover, disclosure needs to be timely, said Heather Taylor-Miesle, executive director for the Ohio Environmental Council. In the case of HB 6, Generation Now didn’t report its 2017 spending to the Internal Revenue Service until late 2019. By then, millions more had been spent to influence the 2018 elections, the passage of HB 6, and the failed referendum effort against it.


Pending bills

Several bills introduced by Democratic and Republican lawmakers could make a strong start toward improved disclosure, including HB 737HB 739, and SB 347. Those bills should be broadened to include digital media, as well as more traditional campaign spending, Turcer said.

The bills should also call for disclosure not only of the name of an organization, but the identity of the top three original donors of funding, Turcer added in her Sept. 16 testimony in support of SB 347. “Otherwise, wealthy special interests will attempt to avoid disclosure by creating pop-up shell groups,” she said.

And while Ohio voters won’t know who’s behind all the groups funding attack ads or other political spending this election season, information is available about how lawmakers voted on HB 6. The Akron Beacon Journal has also compiled some information on how some funds were used in the 2018 Ohio House campaigns.

“People should contact their legislators about HB 6” if they want to speak out about the issue, Stokes said, noting that the law passed with support from a mix of both Republicans and Democrats.

“When the public is outraged about an issue and really shows up, these issues get reversed,” Stokes added. “There’s a lot of leverage right now.”

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Nate's Northcoast Notes• Music, Film, Comedy, Literary Arts

Rich array of arts and entertainment on  October horizon

By Nate Paige




Great Lakes African American Writers Conference (October 2-4)

The Great Lakes African American Writers Conference (GLAAWC) is an unparalleled three-day literary event for lovers of African American literature in the Great Lakes region and, for the first time, will be held virtually. Each year participants have marveled at the quality of our program and our setting. This year, we expect to maintain, perhaps even elevate, the quality of our offering as we go virtual. This year’s events include a spoken word competition, a virtual play, and Kent State University’s Wick Poetry Center has signed on to provide some innovative online creative writing tools.

Click here to register for this FREE event. 


Rare screenings of original 1951 version of ‘Native Son’ (available through October 15)

Acclaimed novelist Richard Wright tales the lead role of Bigger Thomas in original movie adaption
of Native Son the 1951 film of Wright's 1940 blockbuster novel.

As part of its Virtual Cinema series, The Cleveland Cinematheque presents the original movie adaptation (1951) of the classic Richard Wright novel, “Native Son,” starring the author in the lead role as Bigger Thomas.  One of the most controversial novels of its day, Richard Wright's Native Son (first published in 1940) exposed the injustices of urban African American life, witnessed through the eyes of Bigger Thomas, whose violent tendencies and moral confusion were the natural result of a lifetime of deprivation. In prison for murder and sentenced to death, Thomas reflects on the circumstances that led to his fate. Directed by Pierre Chenal and shot in Argentina, this newly restored film is presented in association with the Library of Congress, Fernando Martin Peña and Argentina Sono Film. 

The film is preceded by a special introduction by film historians Eddie Muller (host of TCM’s “Noir Alley”) and Jacqueline Najima Stewart (co-curator of Kino Lorber's Pioneers of African American Cinema collection).  

The screening fee is $12.  Once the film is opened, you have five days to watch it.              

Click here for the screening link.


Comedian Lavell Crawford at Cleveland Improv (October 9-11)



Some of you know him from The Tom Joyner Morning Show; others know him from his appearances on AMC’s “Breaking Bad”; and even others may have seen him on “Chelsea Lately” or “Lopez Tonight,” but however you know him, you know that comedian Lavell Crawford is hilarious! Crawford is headed to Cleveland for a three-day/six-show stint at the Cleveland Improv in the Flats October 9-11. Tickets are $30. Hurry, some shows are already sold out!


BOP STOP’s 6th Anniversary Party featuring The Theron Brown Trio (October 18)


Happy 6th birthday to the BOP STOP under the ownership of The Music Settlement! The Theron Brown Trio [pianist Theron Brown, drummer Zaire [Zigg] Darden, and Jordan McBride, basswill be on hand for the celebration with a livestream performance from 7-8:30PM on the BOP STOP’s Facebook page.  The performance will stream for free, but donations to the band and the venue are welcomed. A limited number of tickets are available for those wanting to attend in person.  To purchase, click here. Note:  The bar will be open, but the kitchen will be closed.  Feel free to bring your own snacks. Masks required.


Is there an upcoming event you’d like included in this column? Please send the details, along with a high-resolution photo/graphic, to northcoastnotes@realdealpress.com at least two weeks prior to the event.

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DeWine walks tightrope in Thursday presser

By Marty Schladen


President Donald Trump meeting with governors, including Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images


Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday provided a glimpse of how difficult it is to be a traditional Republican officeholder in the era of Trump.

The governor has been holding regular press briefings since the spring, when the coronavirus began tightening its deadly grip around the Buckeye State. But on Thursday, he started off by deploring Tuesday’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, which has been almost universally panned as an uncivil shout fest. 

According to one count, the interruptions came at the rate of one a minute, and Trump was the interrupter 75% of the time. Trump also stirred controversy by refusing to condemn a right-wing hate groupunleashed a torrent of false claims about the integrity of the vote, and again refused to say that he would accept the independently certified results of an election that polls say he is currently losing.

On Thursday, DeWine reiterated his support for Trump while criticizing the debate generically.

“The debate itself was not our country’s finest hour,” the governor said, adding that “The name calling by both sides simply is not helpful,” and criticizing “hate groups of both the right and the left.”

That DeWine criticized the debate at all is a little jarring in light of his post-debate tweet.

“A great job tonight by @realdonaldtrump!” it said. “Congratulations to tonight’s sponsors @cwru and @ Cleveland Clinic on hosting on a great debate.”

The governor’s critics accused him of both-sides-ism, especially as he and Lt. Gov Jon Husted again sought to reassure Ohioans that their election system is safe and fair. After all, only one of the candidates — Trump — has railed relentlessly and without evidence that mail-in ballots are vulnerable to rampant fraud.

“We have run fair elections in Ohio for a long, long time and I think it’s important on both sides — let’s not presuppose that we’re going to have a problem when both parties have an interest in having a fair election,” DeWine said, adding, “Voters should have confidence in Ohio that their vote is going to get counted.”

During the debate, Trump also fanned worries about voter intimidation when he made unsupported claims of election stealing and urged supporters to  “go into the polls and watch very carefully.”

Apparently responding to those worries, DeWine again couched his warning in terms of both sides.

“We have an obligation to make sure that people of the right and left who want to create a disturbance, who don’t believe in the rule of law, who believe that violence should take over, that that is dealt with,” he said.

Perhaps the most striking is DeWine’s unwillingness again to criticize Trump for refusing to say he’ll respect the independently certified results of the election. That refusal has aroused profound dismay among some observers of the international scene.

Asked last week if he condemned an earlier refusal by Trump to promise to abide by the results of the election, DeWine said, “I don’t condemn anything. I don’t know what’s in his heart or in his mind.”

Asked again whether he condemned Trump’s statements from last week as well as those from the debate, DeWine again declined.

“Whoever loses, once it’s determined that they’ve lost, they lose,” the governor said.

He talked about contested presidential elections in 1960 and 2000. In neither case did the losers, Richard Nixon and Al Gore, refuse in advance to say that they would respect the result, but DeWine cited those as precedents for this year’s contest.

“Whoever loses will concede,” He said. “This is what we do as Americans. This is what we do. This is what we expect and that’s the name of the game.”

Pressed further on whether he would criticize things Trump has said and done in recent weeks, DeWine betrayed how difficult his situation must be.

“Press conference after press conference, I get asked about different comments made by the president or somebody else,” the president’s Ohio co-chair said. “I’m not here to answer every single thing the president says.

“I think I’ve been very clear throughout my career and throughout my time as governor what I believe in and what we will do. It’s not just what I believe in. It’s not just what I say. And so we’ll continue to speak out against violence. We’ll continue to speak out against anything that disrupts the fairness of the election. We’ll continue to speak out against hatred, violence. That’s what my job is. My job is not every single day to critique the president of the United States, or is it to critique Joe Biden. If there’s another president in there in January I’ll have the same attitude.”

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This story is provided by Ohio Capital Journal, a part of States Newsroom, a national 501 (c)(3) nonprofit. See the original story here.

Tuesday, September 29, 2020

Cuyahoga Politics Today & Sports Scribbles • Cleveland in spotlight tonight

Cleveland will be the center of multiple universes tonight. 

Even most locals, including your faithful scribe, are likely to temporarily set aside pressing matters of health, employment, housing and schools for a few hours of one sort of escapism or another. 


As many as 100 million people may tune in via broadcast, cable or livestream at 9p tonight to watch the first Presidential debate of 2020, which will take place along the Healthline in University Circle on the combined health education campus of the Cleveland Clinic and Case Western Reserve University. 


Former Vice President is facing off against President Donald Trump, who returns to the city where he was nominated by the Republican National Convention in 2016. Social distancing is expected to limit the live audience to around 100 people, perhaps fewer expect than the number of demonstrators  expected to gather outside Case/Clinic Samson Pavilion. 


Fox news anchor Chris Wallace will moderate the commercial free 90 minute program.


Two hours before the debate that could shape the future of American democracy and/or a new world order, the marquee game of the first day of Major League Baseball’s playoffs will see Cleveland Indians ace right-hander Shane Bieber throw the first pitch in a three game series in the American League Wild Card Series against the New York Yankees. A sold out crowd in excess of 35,000 would normally be expected; thanks to COVID-19, attendance at the debate will likely exceed fans at the ballpark.


Both events will carry drama and tension. At the ballgame there will be six umpires, one to call balls and strikes, and five more ready to call “safe”, “out” or ‘foul”. At the debate, the moderator will ask questions and keep time, leaving the “out” and “foul” calls, aka fact-checking, to the home audience, journalists, pundits and partisans.


When the evening is over, we will know who won the ballgame and who leads in the three-game series. We may not be much closer to knowing who will win the election. The Vice President will be challenged to keep his cool, appear presidential, avoid gaffes, and refrain from being drawn into the kind of confusion and chaos that Mr. Trump revels in. 



The president’s guttural instincts for the low road, falsehoods, and general nastiness make him the political equivalent of the Peanuts cartoon character Pigpen, but without the latter’s amiability. 




Mr. Biden will be victorious in tonight's matchup if he can be as resolutely focused as Lucy in her consistent ability to keep the kicker off his game.

 

Hopefully the Biden camp will have prepared their candidate with a few well-placed lines that call attention to Mr. Trump’s abysmal record in handling the pandemic. Otherwise, their candidate needs to focus on what he will do with respect to the economy, healing the country’s divisions, and returning us to as close to semi-normal as may be possible in the next four years. 


While the president’s taxes may be mentioned, perhaps by the moderator, they are unlikely to be much of an issue in this year’s election. Mr. Trump’s relentless efforts to polarize the nation as a means of galvanizing his base have been the virtual equivalent of his shooting someone at random on Broadway during rush hour, denying the shooting occurred, and blaming the victim for interfering with the bullet’s path, while demeaning his credibility and heritage.


As for the Indians, we have been reluctant to write about them for years while they retained their offensive Wahoo mascot. While the name is still problematic, and needs to be changed, they have been a great under the radar story this year, with the illness of their manager, the steadfast leadership of coach Sandy Alomar, the brilliance of Bieber, and the irrepressibility of their on the field engine, Jose Ramirez.


Here’s hoping that Uncle Joe and Joltin’ Jose have us feeling good at night’s end.


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