The Ohio House of Representatives Thursday unanimously ousted 61-year-old Republican Speaker Larry Householder, charged by federal authorities as a racketeer in a $61 million bribery scandal involving a $1.3 billion state bailout of two FirstEnergy nuclear plants (and several coal-fired plants in Ohio and Indiana). The legislators then elected veteran Republican Rep. Bob Cupp to replace him.
Householder was one of the most powerful figures in Ohio politics, but, along with four associates, was charged in a deep bribery scheme that involved multiple organizations designed to mislead and misdirect, and multiple flows of dark money, all of which traced back to Akron utility giant FirstEnergy.
The Ohio House did not expel Householder, who is unchallenged for reelection in November. At the same time the House ousted him as speaker, a federal grand jury indicted him on conspiracy under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law.
The bribery scheme involved getting Householder named speaker and passing HB 6, a law that provided a subsidy to keep the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants, unable to compete in competitive markets, afloat, and then defeating a referendum to overturn the law. The federal charges caused Republican Gov. Mike DeWine, who supported and signed the 2019 law, to reverse course and call for its repeal.
The vote to upend Householder’s speakership was 90-0, while the vote to replace him with Cupp was 55-38, along party lines. Cupp is a four-term state senator and a three-term house member. He is also a former Ohio Supreme Court justice.
As the Ohio solons were attempting to clean up their leadership mess, the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Columbus Dispatch reported that Ohio coal magnate and strong and early Donald Trump supporter in 2016 provided $100,000 in dark money to one of the several front groups created to cover the scheme to funnel money to HB 6 supporters. A group identified in the criminal complaint as “Dark Money Group 1” was a for-profit company Hardworking Ohioans Inc., according to the two newspapers. That company spent $1.5 million “to support Householder’s Republican candidates in the general election.”
The newspapers said Bob Murray’s Murray Energy Corp., identified in the complaint as “Company B,” wired $100, 000 to the Ohio front group. The newspapers said a bankruptcy filing by Murray Energy shows the company wired the money on Oct. 26, 2018. The criminal complaint says the “Company B” wired the same amount on the same day to Hardworking Ohioans, and that “Company B is an energy company with interests aligned with Company A,” which the complaint indirectly identified as FirstEnergy.
Hardworking Ohioans is privately held and not required to disclose contributions and spending. The other front groups in the racket alleged by the federal government were also set up to avoid disclosing where they got their money and how they spent it.
Murray Energy, one of the nation’s largest coal companies and a major fuel supplier to FirstEnergy, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization last October, facing some $2.7 billion in debt and $8 billion in obligations for pensions and benefits. Murray, founder and CEO, stepped down when the company filed for bankruptcy protection. He turned over management of the company, which paid him $14 million in 2018, to his nephew, Robert Moore, who is now the CEO, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Financial Officer. Former Murray lobbyist Andrew Wheeler is the head of the Environment Protection Agency under Donald Trump.
Opponents of HB 6, including local and national environmental groups, are asking the federal bankruptcy judge to reveal any spending related to HB 6.
— Kennedy Maize