COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The failed 2019 campaign to repeal House Bill 6, the Ohio nuclear bailout law that’s now at the center of a federal corruption investigation, is facing possible sanctions this week from the Ohio Elections Commission for not disclosing who funded the campaign.
Elections commission members on Thursday will consider a complaint against Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, the well-financed political group that attempted to repeal HB6 through a citizen’s referendum. The group disbanded late last year, shortly after it missed a legal deadline to collect the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed to place the the issue on the ballot for a statewide vote.
Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts never filed a state campaign-finance report detailing the group’s 2019 expenditures, which included ads, legal expenses and paid petition workers. That led Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose’s staff to refer the case to the elections commission in March.
Elections commission staff now is recommending fining the group $5,225, or $25 for each day that has passed since Jan. 31, the deadline under state law for campaign groups that performed political work during 2019.
The elections commission could fine the group up to $100 a day, said Elections Commission Director Phil Richter. But since Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, formed shortly after the passage of HB6 in July 2019, is considered a first-time offender, precedent is to consider a lower-end penalty, Richter said.
Gene Pierce, a Republican political consultant who served as a spokesman for the repeal campaign, declined to comment for this story, as did the group’s campaign manager, Brandon Lynaugh.
House Bill 6 created subsidies worth more than $1 billion for two Ohio nuclear plants, as well as funding for three solar projects and two coal plants owned by a consortium of Ohio utility companies. The legislation was the subject of a massive lobbying campaign from secretive groups on both sides of the issue. The bill came under renewed public scrutiny last month, when federal agents arrested House Speaker Larry Householder, alleging he corruptly agreed to pass the legislation for FirstEnergy Corp. in exchange for $60 million to help Householder so he could push for the bailout legislation.
Federal prosecutors have alleged FirstEnergy and related companies secretly spent tens of millions of dollars to get the get the bill passed, which included running ads pressuring legislators to sign it, hiring campaign workers to interfere with the repeal campaign’s efforts to gather signatures and running ads discouraging voters from signing the repeal petitions. The company and its affiliated political groups structured their spending to make it impossible or difficult to track.
Householder’s arrest upended Ohio politics, led to calls to close “dark money” loopholes in state campaign-finance law that facilitated the massive HB6 campaign and prompted Gov. Mike DeWine and state legislative leaders to say HB6 should be repealed.
Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, a coalition of natural-gas utility interests and environmental groups, also never disclosed its donors.
However, a new campaign calling itself the Coalition to Restore Public Trust has formed to pressure lawmakers to repeal House Bill 6. The group, which recently announced plans to run $900,000 in digital ads targeting 22 state legislative districts, says its sponsors include Vistra Energy, a Texas-based utility company and the Ohio Oil & Gas Association.
Read related coverage from cleveland.com:
Anti-House Bill 6 group misses deadline to report campaign donors, spending details
Heated HB6 campaign shows why Ohio needs to close ‘dark money’ loopholes, advocates say
Nuclear bailout bill shows how big money can be put to work in the Ohio Statehouse