Undercover Crime
If this happened in New York or California, it would be big news. First Energy Corporation was saddled with aging and expensive nuclear reactors. So they paid a $60 million bribe to get “the government” to take over their trillion dollars of debt. They got “their man” elected as the state Speaker of the House. He spread that bribe money among candidates for the legislature. (First Energy admitted to this and paid a massive fine in a Civil Court action).
He then goes on to use tough tactics to get the vote through the legislature. Governor DeWine signed the bill and the state paid the debt on the aging plants. And when a popular referendum was proposed to revoke it, the Speaker lead the fight to keep it off the ballot. He took the bribe, and he kept his word to the end. It’s the definition of corruption, big-time corruption. Take a bribe, spend state money to protect the “briber”; do whatever it takes to “come through”. I guess there is some “honor” among these thieves.
And it all happened, right at Broad and High here in Columbus, the state capitol of Ohio. But if you weren’t paying attention, it just went right by.
Missed It
Yesterday, the former Speaker of the Ohio State Legislature, Larry Householder, and the former Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, Matt Borges, were convicted of bribery and corruption in a Cincinnati Federal Court. They could both be sentenced to up to twenty years in Federal prison. But, unless you were paying close attention, you probably don’t even know.
Most of the newspapers in Ohio are owned by Gannett-Ohio. Gannett owns twenty-one daily papers, including the Columbus Dispatch, the Akron Beacon Journal, the Canton Repository and the Cincinnati Enquirer (and for locals here, the Newark Advocate). And they own thirty weekly papers, the old small-town mastheads that used to give the school lunch menus and the local farm prices (like the Pataskala Standard and the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette). The mastheads still exist, but the “local-ness” is gone.
Gannett sent two reporters to the trial in Cincinnati, and had the most scandal coverage in the state. But even then, it was sporadic. And the scandal coverage “ended” at Householder and Borges. The millions of dollars spent for other candidates for office seems to have gone unnoticed.
Off Television
An avowedly conservative Sinclair Corporation owns television stations in four of the six major Ohio markets (including WSYX in Columbus and WKRC in Cincinnati). So does less politically committed Nexstar. While there’s been some coverage of the First Energy scandal on Nexstar’s stations, it’s often been buried in the local news, or on the Sunday morning shows.
All of Ohio’s media seems to be willing to allow Householder and Borges to “take the fall” for the First Energy scandal. But the tentacles went far and wide, all the way to include Governor DeWine and Lieutenant Governor Husted. Many of the Republican legislators currently serving got “a piece” of the First Energy millions. But no one is talking about them.
And as far as national media is concerned, there is nothing happening here (…move along, move along). I suppose since Ohio seems to be an uncontested “Red” state, there’s no political headline worth pursuing. That is, except for a big railroad crash leaving hazardous waste all over a small Eastern Ohio town.
Under the Radar
And even the Democratic candidates for office here in Ohio seem unable to build on the rampant corruption of their opponents. The Republicans have managed to “lockdown” the First Energy contagion to Householder and Borges, regardless of the widespread involvement by most of the GOP leaders. It’s kind of like the better covered George Santos election in New York, where the Democrat knew all about his opponent, but couldn’t effectively campaign on it.
The current state legislature is so Republican that it “schism-ed” into a far-right Republican section and a mid-right section that got the few remaining Democrats to go along for a majority. The Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost refused to come out against the “deal” because he received money (legally) from First Energy. Governor Mike DeWine appointed an energy-friendly Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, who took a multi-million dollar bribe from First Energy.
The First Energy bribery goes all the way to the top of the Ohio government. But the executive branch, the legislature, and Gannett, Sinclair and Nexstar, all seem content to let Householder and Borges “hold the bag”. If they won’t chase the story, who will?
Ohio seems to pride itself on being “under the radar” of national news. And, as long as it’s not about Norfolk and Southern Railroad, that’s still holding true.
Earlier Essays about Ohio and First Energy
