Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s claim that he didn’t know about the millions the Akron utility spent to support his 2018 gubernatorial campaign is simply unbelievable, an Ohio political scientist said in a recent interview. DeWine’s spokesman pushed back.
Then FirstEnergy provided that support spent over $60 million passing and securing a $1.3 billion ratepayer-financed rescue package, most of which benefited utilities. In 2019, DeWine signed the bill into law within hours of its passage.
But now that two GOP officials they are in federal prison Because two other people involved in the program committed suicide as a result of the scandal, DeWine and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted have downplayed what they knew about FirstEnergy’s support for their campaign. They also downplay the connections between the administration and the public utility company.
They say they supported the unpopular bailout because they believed protecting nuclear power generation in Ohio was good public policy.
However, some of the documents released in response to a request from a group of news organizations — including Floodlight, Energy News Network, USA Today Network and Capital Journal — show that the support they have received from FirstEnergy is greater than previously known.
Big, gloomy money
The company performed donations totaling $1 million to 501(c)(4) gloomy money groups supporting Husted in 2018, before he abandoned his gubernatorial bid and joined the DeWine ticket. The files also show that the company donated as much as $2.5 million to gloomy money groups supporting DeWine that same year.
Husted’s office he wouldn’t say whether the lieutenant governor knew about it about payments when they are made. Last week, DeWine press secretary Dan Tierney he denied that DeWine knew about the trove of newly disclosed FirstEnergy contributions.
University of Cincinnati political scientist David Niven said there is “zero chance” that DeWine’s claim is true. He explained that in 2018, there was a nationwide backlash against Donald Trump’s presidency and support for Democrats increased. That meant a “razor-thin” election for DeWine, a Republican running in a state where Trump had an eight-point lead two years earlier, Niven said.
DeWine “was in an election cycle when the tide was turning against his party,” Niven said. “The notion that he was just a clumsy, naive grandpa who had no idea about the seven-figure flows (supporting) his campaign is probably the most far-fetched thing he has ever said.”
Then there’s the fact that it’s doubtful the company would incur such a huge expense without making sure the public official profiting from it knew about it. This seems especially true for FirstEnergy, which later admitted to paying a bribe of $4.3 million Sam Randazzo just before DeWine was nominated to regulate the company and other utilities in Ohio.
The indictment against Randazzo and two former FirstEnergy executives alleges that on December 18, 2018, the executives dined with Governor-elect DeWine and Lieutenant Governor-elect Husted and then went from there to Randazzo’s apartment to arrange the bribe. Randazzo, accused of helping craft and lobby for a corrupt bailout package, died by suicide earlier this month.
Return on investment
Last week, Tierney, DeWine’s press secretary, was asked why FirstEnergy would spend millions to support its boss without making sure DeWine knew about it. Tierney cited laws that prohibit gloomy money groups from coordinating their activities with campaigns.
“As to your question about why donors for independent expenditures may not engage candidates directly in independent expenditures, my guess is that it is because the coordination of candidates with the independent expenditure groups listed in Art. 501(c)(4) is illegal, Tierney wrote in an email. “I assume that entities that often make such donations are aware of these legal restrictions. “I don’t think you were trying to accuse the governor of illegal conduct because he is following the law, but I would strongly deny any such innuendo because there is no basis for it.”
However, merely informing a candidate about his or her contribution to an independent group does not appear to be sufficient to meet the State’s definition of “coordination” This applies to communications “sent pursuant to any arrangement, coordination or direction by a candidate, a candidate’s campaign committee or a candidate’s agent…” Ohio Revised Code says.
Some interest groups piously claimed that they were spending millions to support candidates not to buy influence but because they wanted to support good governance. Political scientist Niven said such a claim would be ridiculous in the context of the 2018 FirstEnergy and Ohio gubernatorial elections.
“It’s about return on investment,” he said. “It’s not even primarily about influencing the election result, but about influencing the behavior of those elected.”
And, Niven said, given that FirstEnergy’s spending in 2018 and 2019 provided it with billions in financial aid, “The return on investment in this venture is spectacular.”
Who benefits?
In an email, Tierney disputed news reports suggesting that groups supporting DeWine received all of the $2.5 million in FirstEnergy gloomy money issued in 2018. The donations were made to a gloomy money group affiliated with the Republican Governors Association, but only $500,000 was specially marked “DeWine”.
“…I’m sure Ohio political reporters are focused on Ohio issues. I would like to note that FirstEnergy operates in seven states,” Tierney said. “Some of these states have Republican governors, others have recently had Republican governors, and even more have recently had competitive gubernatorial elections.”
However, of these states, only four – Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and Maryland – held gubernatorial elections in 2018. Of these, Ohio was by far the closest and therefore most likely to be hit by bulky spending. It is also a state with two nuclear plants that FirstEnergy desperately wanted to save.
DeWine defeated Democrat Richard Corday by 3.7 percentage points. The next closest race was in Maryland, where Republican Larry Hogan defeated Democrat Ben Jealous by 12 points, more than triple his margin in the Ohio race.
Additionally, documents obtained by news organizations include messages showing FirstEnergy’s interest in pumping gloomy money into Ohio’s 2018 gubernatorial election. The first, written by FirstEnergy Vice President Michael Dowling, tried to ease concerns about the company’s massive spending through the Republican Governors Association to lend a hand DeWine and Husted.
“Theoretically, DeWine/Husted could have a $10 million balance in the campaign account and RGA could spend $40 million to support DeWine in Ohio,” Dowling said in an email first reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I want to say that you could compare the size of the donation to RGA to the amount raised by the DeWine campaign or the current balance of the DeWine campaign, but I’m not sure that makes sense.”
Other claims
In addition to pleading ignorance of FirstEnergy’s gloomy money, the governor and his staff failed to explain what senior members of his administration who had close ties to the company knew about a significant part of the scandal – the relationship between FirstEnergy and the man DeWine chose to settle.
The governor and his staff claimed that the ties between Randazzo and FirstEnergy were common knowledge when DeWine took office in 2019. However, there is little evidence to support this claim.
Meanwhile, the indictment against Randazzo shows that Randazzo and FirstEnergy had a long, secret relationship that paid Randazzo millions of dollars before his $4.3 million payout in 2019. It also shows that both sides cared about keeping this information secret.
Throughout the scandal, DeWine and his colleagues steadfastly maintained that the governor supported FirstEnergy’s financial bailout not for any ulterior motive, but because he believed it was good public policy. In support of that, Tierney last week pointed to the fact that Cordray, DeWine’s Democratic rival, also supported keeping FirstEnergy’s nuclear plants open.
But there is some significant context. FirstEnergy donated gloomy money to support DeWine and oppose Cordray. Also, DeWine’s chief of stafflegislative director and his decision to regulate the industry – all of whom had lucrative financial ties to the company both at the same time and in the recent past.
“It’s just ridiculous,” Niven said. “They are at the center of the greatest corporate-political fraud in the history of the country, and their response is, ‘Well, anyone would do it.’”
