Not a single HB 6 ‘yes’ vote lost their election. Some ‘no’ votes did.

By Tyler Buchanan

Davis Besse Nuclear Power Station

The scandal surrounding House Bill 6 took out the speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. It has dominated the news pages and airwaves for months. It was the subject of countless campaign attack ads. 

In the end, voters didn’t seem to care.

The scandal implicating former Speaker Larry Householder and his effort to get a nuclear bailout enacted into law emerged as a major theme in the 2020 Statehouse elections, but seemingly had little impact on the results. 

In total, there were 46 lawmakers who voted for House Bill 6 and were on the ballot this November for a seat in the Ohio House or Ohio Senate. The unofficial results show that every single one of them won their election: 46-for-46. That includes Householder himself, who won reelection to his 72nd District over a slate of write-in opponents. 

In contrast, there were 35 “no” votes who were up for election. Four of them have been voted out, and a fifth lawmaker’s race is too close to call.

That’s a striking result considering the extent to which the scandal has enveloped Ohio politics since the July arrests of Householder and four political operatives. In recent months, news outlets have extensively covered an 81-page affidavit outlining the years of alleged corruption and bribery that went into HB 6 being enacted to benefit the former FirstEnergy Solutions of Akron. So too did news stories highlight the vote to remove Householder as the House leader; the ensuing trials; and the ongoing effort to get HB 6 repealed.

Voters got one last reminder last week, when two people charged in the alleged scheme pleaded guilty. 

The years-long plot, as alleged by federal investigators, involved FirstEnergy Solutions funneling “dark money” toward a group controlled by Householder. These resources were used to get Householder and a number of other Republican allies elected to the Ohio House of Representatives. These allies joined with more than two-dozen Democrats to elevate Householder as House speaker in 2019.

Within months, Republicans introduced the nuclear bailout bill and quickly pushed it through both chambers. It was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine in July 2019.

Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, 
at the Ohio Statehouse

The controversy surrounding the bill did not translate to any electoral trouble for its supporters and top backers. Both HB 6 sponsors were easily reelected: Rep. Shane Wilkin, R-Lynchburg, won another term in the 91st District by an unofficial margin of 77% to 23%, and Lake County Rep. Jamie Callender, R-Concord, won by an unofficial margin of 61% to 39% in the 61st District.

Ten other bill cosponsors were up for election this year. All 10 won their contests. Four were unopposed, and the remaining six won comfortably — by an average margin of 35%.

The remaining rank-and-file members who voted in favor of HB 6 and were up for election all were victorious as well. In the wake of Householder’s arrest, lawmakers sought to distance themselves from the scandal, claiming to be unaware of the alleged behind-the-scenes collusion between Householder and FirstEnergy Solutions to get the bill passed. The law was controversial, several conceded in retrospect, but their “yes” votes were matter of policy, not corruption. 

This election season, both political parties went out of their way to place blame on each other in attacking candidates with dubious connections to the plot. Republicans attacked one opposing Democratic candidate with a reference to “disgraced Larry Householder,” despite the fact the candidate wasn’t even in office last year to have been involved. 

Democrats likewise attacked Republican candidates who, in some cases, didn’t vote for Householder as speaker and did not vote for HB 6. The most suspect example involved an ad against Republican Rep. Dave Greenspan, R-Westlake, which stated: “Greenspan wants Ohio voters to think he is a moderate and had nothing to do with ex-Speaker Householder or (Householder’s) public corruption scandal.”

In fact, the criminal complaint against Householder mentions an unnamed lawmaker who gave incriminating texts from Householder to the FBI. The lawmaker was later identified by Cleveland.com as being Greenspan. He also voted against HB 6.

Nevertheless, the initial vote count has Greenspan being voted out of office. He trails his Democratic opponent by more than 1,000 votes with additional absentee and provisional ballots still yet to be counted. 

Other “no” votes on HB 6 who appear to have lost their reelection bids include Rep. Randi Clites, D-Ravenna; Rep. Gil Blair, D-Weathersfield; and Sen. Sean O’Brien, D-Bazetta. 

Sen. Stephanie Kunze, R-Hilliard, is near-deadlocked with her opponent as the candidates await more votes to get counted. 

“I have never seen so much awareness about a state political issue before,” the Capital Journal quoted Micah Derry as saying prior to Election Day. Derry is the state director for Americans for Prosperty’s Ohio chapter and his organization campaigned door-to-door for candidates who had opposed HB 6 in 2019.

One reason why the anti-corruption message may not have broken through to voters? As Derry said in October, “No one’s blameless in this (scandal). Everyone’s hands are dirty in this whole process.”

Many Democrats had joined with Republicans to elect Householder as House speaker. HB 6 passed with support from eight Democrats in the House and three in the Senate. 

Two of those Senate Democrats are part of the caucus leadership: Minority Leader Kenny Yuko of Richmond Heights and Assistant Minority Whip Sandra Williams of Cleveland. Williams co-sponsored the bill. 

Over the years, money has flowed from FirstEnergy’s political action committee to Ohio politicians of both parties. In total, 32 of the 33 state senators and the majority of state representatives have received campaign contributions from FirstEnergy.

As the chambers return for their lame-duck sessions, the battle over what to do with the tainted law continues. Some believe it should be fully repealed. Others want it replaced through a cleaner, more transparent process. Others still believe it’s good policy, regardless of the alleged corruption it took to get it passed. 

Lawmakers survived their 2020 elections. How they proceed with a response to HB6 the rest of this term and in the next may or may not matter to voters the next time around. 

• • •• • •

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

Utility's PAC targeted several NE Ohio elected officials with campaign contributions

FirstEnergy money flowed to Ohio politicians who supported Householder-backed HB6 

By Tyler Buchanan

Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, addresses reporters. Photo by Jake Zuckerman

FirstEnergy Solutions said it needed a government bailout to continue operating. It still had hundreds of thousands of dollars available to donate to Ohio politicians.

The Akron-based energy company spent years working toward what would become House Bill 6 — passed by the Republican-controlled state legislature and signed by Gov. Mike DeWine in the summer of 2019.

The effort to pass that bill spurred a federal investigation that led to the Tuesday morning arrest of Ohio Speaker of the House Larry Householder and four of his political associates.

Federal investigators have alleged Householder organized a bribery scheme to accept $61 million from FirstEnergy in return for passing HB 6 and enriching Householder and his allies in the process. 

No other state legislator besides Householder has been charged with a crime, and U.S. Attorney David DeVillers of the Southern District of Ohio Tuesday would not identify any others that may still be under investigation. 

A review of publicly-available campaign finance data shows FirstEnergy’s political action committee (PAC) has contributed money to politicians throughout the Ohio Statehouse. The company has donated generously to Republicans and Democrats alike, from leaders to backbenchers.

Between 2017 and when HB 6 was signed into law in July 2019, FirstEnergy donated nearly $375,000 to 54 different state lawmakers. Of those 54, 41 voted for HB 6, just 11 voted against and two did not cast a ballot.

Additionally, FirstEnergy made initial contributions to a dozen other lawmakers after they voted for HB 6.

The company saved most of its largest donations for the bill’s sponsors.

State law sets campaign contribution limits for PACs donating to individual candidates at around $13,300 per reporting period. Many of the top HB 6 backers received donations close to this amount.

The bill was sponsored by Republican state Reps. Jamie Callender of Concord and Shane Wilkin of Lynchburg in April 2019. It passed the Ohio House of Representatives in May; the Ohio Senate (with amendments) in July; then the House concurred with those changes a week later.

Callender received a max donation of $12,700 from FirstEnergy’s PAC in 2018. He’s since received $6,000 from the organization.

Wilkin received $10,000 from the PAC in 2018, another $3,000 during the summer of 2019 and $2,500 more that fall after the bill was signed into law. 

The bill had nine Republican cosponsors in the Ohio House. Three of them took in five-figure donations from FirstEnergy in 2018: Jon Cross of Kenton, Brett Hudson Hillyer of Uhrichsville and Anthony DeVitis of Green. DeVitis, the assistant majority floor leader, took in the most cash: $20,415 in 2018, another $7,500 the same month as the Ohio House’s first vote on HB 6 and $1,000 later in 2019. 

Other state representatives received FirstEnergy contributions in the few years leading up to them sponsoring and voting for HB 6: Bill Reineke of Tiffin ($1,500), Bill Seitz of Cincinnati, the majority floor leader ($7,000), Nino Vitale of Urbana ($2,500), Don Jones of Freeport ($500) and Dick Stein of Norwalk ($2,000). 

All 11 House sponsors and cosponsors received at least one donation from FirstEnergy following the passage of HB 6. 

A similar pattern followed in the Ohio Senate, which saw four cosponsors: John Eklund of Munson Twp., Theresa Gavarone of Bowling Green, Sandra Williams of Cleveland and Lou Terhar of Green Twp. Williams is the only Democratic cosponsor of HB 6; Terhar later resigned in 2019 after the vote.

Eklund brought in $9,500 from FirstEnergy’s PAC in the two years leading up to HB 6 and another $2,500 later in 2019.

Gavarone received $1,500 in 2018, $1,000 in May 2019 and has taken in $3,500 more in 2020. 

Williams, a four-term legislator in the Ohio House before being elected to the Senate in 2014, has been a long-time recipient of FirstEnergy campaign cash. The assistant minority whip took in $10,000 in 2017 and a few thousand more in late 2019. 

Terhar received $5,000 in 2016, $3,500 in 2018 and $500 more two weeks before the Senate’s vote. 

Campaign records show many other representatives and senators who voted for HB 6 (but did not serve as a sponsor) received FirstEnergy money. 

In the House, for example, nine Democrats broke with their party to support HB 6. Five of them received FirstEnergy donations in the year leading up to the vote.

·       Rep. Michael Sheehy of Toledo ($500 in 2018)

·       Rep. John Patterson of Jefferson ($500 in 2018)

·       Rep. Jack Cera of Bellaire ($1,000 in 2018)

·       Rep. John Rogers of Mentor-on-the-Lake ($500 in 2017, $500 in 2018)

·       Rep. Tavia Galonski of Akron ($1,500 in 2018, $500 in 2019)

Three of the four others received donations after voting in favor of HB 6: Reps. Thomas West of Canton ($2,500 later in 2019); Lisa Sobecki of Toledo ($1,500 in 2020) and Terrence Upchurch of Cleveland ($1,000 later in 2019, $2,500 in 2020). 

Just three Senate Democrats broke with their party to vote for HB 6. Among them were Williams and Sen. Kenny Yuko, of Richmond Heights, the chamber’s minority leader. Yuko brought in $1,500 from FirstEnergy in 2018 and another $1,000 a month before the vote. 

Dozens of Republican “yes” votes in the House and Senate received contributions in the years preceding and following HB 6’s passage.  

But the most money from FirstEnergy — of either party — went to Householder. As a representative, he received $7,500 from the PAC in 2017 and nearly $18,000 in 2018. As Speaker, he received a max donation of $13,292 in November 2019 after HB 6 passed. 

In addition to specific candidates, the company donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to both political parties and to various caucuses.

Besides campaign contributions, the company spent millions of dollars to advertise and lobby in favor of this legislative effort, cleveland.com and other outlets have reported.

• • •• • •

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

Big doings in Cleveland Heights this morning as Donald Trump visits

Local black Democrats to demand apology from GOP candidate for leading Birther movement while Trump holds Town Hall meeting at New Spirit Revival Center

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS OH — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump will be at New Spirit Revival Center today for what is billed as a “town hall meeting to discuss issues confronting urban America”.

Fox News Channel is convening the meeting, which will be taped live and Special Guest will be the GOP Nominee for President, Donald Trump.

The event will be taped live beginning around 9:30am and is scheduled for broadcast tonight at 10pm. About 40 people who signed up are expected to be a part of the campaign event.

  

While Trump is inside, a counter event will be held directly across the street from the church, which is located at 3130 Mayfield Road, just east of Lee Road.

Several African American elected officials are expected to hold a 10:30am press conference to ask Trump to apologize for leading the birther movement, widely condemned as an attempt to delegitimize the first black President of the United States. State Senator Sandra Williams, State Rep. Janine Boyd, and Cuyahoga County Councilman Anthony Hairston are expected to speak.

New Spirit Church is led by Pastor Darrell Scott, who delivered a fiery six-minute talk at the Republican National Convention, held in Cleveland in July.

Re-districting Drama is High Stakes Battle for More than Seats

Within hours of news reports citing GOP sources that a deal was near to peel off black House Democrats for a revised congressional map, State Rep. Sandra Williams, a Cleveland Democrat who heads the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus, released a statement denying that any such deal has been reached and reaffirming her group’s solidarity with House Democrats and the Democratic Party.

Williams’ statement:

“There has been no agreement between members of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus and anyone on the Republican side on new congressional district lines. …The GOP so far is only offering minor tweaks to district lines without fundamentally changing the huge disparity between Republican and Democratic majority seats. This status quo is unacceptable to us, House Democrats and the Democratic Party as a whole. However, discussions are ongoing to achieve a workable map.”

My oh my.

Politics these days has become a high stakes game.  Or, as the wags put it, politics ain’t beanbag.

The posturing going on at the statehouse is real combat as Republicans work to adjust on the fly to yet another overreach.  If we look at the political landscape not just in Ohio but all across the land in 2011, there has been a well-organized, well-funded coordinated effort to restrict American democracy and full participation therein. And you don’t have to be a liberal loving, Wall Street-hating, union-worshiping, blindly partisan Democrat peacenik to see it.

Discouraging voters by restricting access to early voting; attacking public unions to eviscerate virtually the only force capable in the public arena of going toe-to-toe the most egregious excesses unbridled corporate desire; rigging voting districts to ensure that people can vote essentially by packing up and moving: this is what the GOP-Tea Party has ramped up since the last presidential election in preparation for the next presidential election, now just twelve months away.

No less an authority than the Federal Reserve provides evidence that since 2007, the collective net worth of Americans has fallen about $5.5 trillion [$5,500,000,000,000.00], or more than 8.6 percent. Over 85% of that decline is in real estate, which has lost $4.7 trillion in value, or 22 percent, since 2007.

Now we already know that those at the top have seen their wealth increase astronomically over the past two decades. So who is seeing that loss at home, gentle readers? All the rest of us, the 80 to 90 percent of the country who need to be seeking out and shoring up allies of every sort, because if the conservatives’ coordinated national effort succeeds, we’ll be in for more of the same.

Your representatives in Columbus know this, and you should let them know that you do as well and that they needn’t come home if they sell out.

• • •

Quick Bits: Today marks the anniversary of the debut of Ebony magazine in 1945.

The US tested the first hydrogen bomb on November 1, 1952.

Black Political Leadership in Cleveland & Civil Rights, Pt. II

A few weeks after last year’s November elections, a gaggle of black elected officials and political operatives met at the Harvard Community Center in Cleveland’s Ward 1 to assess the aftermath of the statewide Republican sweep and the uncertain landscape of local politics following the election of Cuyahoga County’s first-ever county executive and county council.

The meeting was the bright idea of State Senator Nina Turner and State Representative Sandra Williams, two of the area’s more diligent state legislators. They invited virtually every local black elected official they could identify, including every black Democratic precinct committee they knew about. 

The meeting drew plenty of suburban council people, as well as old political heads-without-portfolio like Lang Dunbar, and Bill Crockett; up-and-comers like Ward 11 Dem leader Anthony Hairston and Euclid councilman David Gilliham, and seasoned operatives such as Lynnie Powell, Kenn Dowell, Michael Taylor, and Bob Render.

The stated agenda was to analyze the 2010 election returns, to try and divine the reasons behind low and unenthusiastic voter turnout in black communities, and to craft a forward-looking strategy.

The approach was thoughtful. There was promise in the air when the meeting began with perhaps sixty-five attendees arranged in a semi-circle. People were initially respectful as Turner called the meeting to order, stated the agenda and offered the podium to Arnold Pinkney, dean of local black politics.

That was the high point of the meeting.

Mr. Pinkney’s account of the election was distressingly feeble, astonishingly devoid of insight, and absurdly self-serving in its assessment of the strategic and tactical errors of the Ted Strickland/Ohio Democratic Party-led statewide campaign. The essential takeaway from his presentation was that the state party should have hired him to get out the vote instead of some out-of-state crew.

No one challenged his eminence regarding this assessment so Sen. Turner then attempted to move to the agenda’s next item: abysmal turnout by black voters.

It serves no point to offer a blow-by-blow account of how the meeting quickly degenerated into a verbal free-for-all. Suffice it to say there were destructive efforts to derail if not highjack the agenda. These efforts had been primed if not planned and led to silly and distressing assertions of political primacy and potency. The leading protagonists were eventually restrained and the shouting match ended with desultory attempts to restore a semblance of stability.

This was such a depressing turn of events that I have been reluctant if not unable to write about it.

• • •

There was an elephant in the room that day whose gigantic shadow caused many of the attending elected officials to become discombobulated. They behaved as if they were playing musical chairs on quicksand. The music was cacophonous, and nobody knew which of the too few chairs were safe to sit in.

The cause of this erratic and discomfiting behavior was a radical realignment of political forces on many levels. New networks were being empowered and you couldn’t tell the players even with a scorecard.

On the state level — Democrats had been thoroughly ousted. Republicans were in, led by a combative governor who would soon demonstrate that black people had no rights the GOP was bound to respect.

On the county level, there reigned a new county executive, an Irish former G-man, Ed FitzGerald. He owed much of his electoral victory to support rounded up by newer black political leaders who were not in attendance: East Cleveland mayor Gary Norton Jr., Cleveland councilmen T. J. Dow and Kevin Conwell, and suburban leaders like Joe Fouche of Oakwood Village.

There appeared to be not a single person in the room with an inkling of how FitzGerald would deal with the black community and its established political leadership.

Moreover, the uprooting of the corrupted county government structure had facilitated the emergence of new leadership for the county Democratic Party. New party chairman Stuart Garson had been selected, courted, and ratified by Congresswoman Marcia Fudge as new party chair six months earlier, but his connections to the rank-and-file were even more a mystery than FitzGerald’s.

To cap it off, in two years on the job Fudge had yet to consolidate the mantle of leadership that had flowed so long from the 11^th District Congressional seat, first from the dynastic authority and political skill of Lou Stokes, and then from the dynamism and infectious indefatigability of Stephanie Tubbs Jones.

So, with every traditional political lighthouse either adrift or under uncertain or foreign control, there should have been no surprise when the captain-less crew engaged in unseemly jousting for control of the helm, shouted mutual accusations of mutiny, and wanted to throw shipmates overboard.

This sorry state of affairs has continued for much of the last year, as evidenced by infighting among the leaders of the Ohio Legislative Black Caucus over state legislative redistricting.

We will look at that on Thursday.