Cleveland.com: Householder: Broken Government - racketeering sentencings underscore why Issue 1 to stifle citizens’ anti-corruption powers has to fail: editorial
Householder sentencing underscores why Issue 1 has to fail
Former House Speaker Larry Householder, once among Ohio’s most powerful politicians, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for his central role in the FirstEnergy/House Bill 6 bribery and racketeering scandal. It’s the largest instance of public corruption in 220 years of Ohio statehood.
Given Householder’s age — he’s 64 — a 20-year sentence could amount to life imprisonment. But in tempering justice with mercy, the sentence U.S. District Judge Timothy S. Black metes out should send a clear and unmistakable message that public corruption in Ohio, from the Statehouse on down, must stop. Now.
Still, the sentencing of Householder and of co-conspirator Matt Borges, former head of the Ohio Republican Party, who will be sentenced Friday — and who also faces up to 20 years, although prosecutors have asked for five to eight — is not all that’s at stake in this case.
Not by a long shot.
If not for the federal investigation, the vast H.B. 6 skein of interlocked political conspiracies, bribes, dirty tricks and dark-money groups would likely never have been uncovered — or the hidden sources of more than $60 million in dark-money bribes.
In a four-step scheme, Householder first got Republican allies elected to the Ohio House; got them to elect him speaker, then got H.B. 6 passed — those last two, be it noted, with the help of votes from Ohio House and state Senate Democrats — then warded off a bid by voter-petitioners to overturn H.B. 6 in a statewide referendum. All with the covert help of Akron-based FirstEnergy and dark money.
The apparent ease with which all that was done has to change. Our editorial series looking at the exposed, overlapping flaws in Ohio utility regulations, campaign laws, lobbying disclosure requirements, and dark money loopholes is titled, “Householder: Broken Government.” Transparency in government equates to empowerment of the people.
Yet, also empowering Ohioans are constitutional provisions adopted more than a century ago to ensure that citizens themselves can act as a brake on Statehouse corruption.
That 1912 Constitution gives Ohio citizens the power to initiate and adopt constitutional amendments by reasonable signature-gathering rules and a simple majority vote.
The aim then: to thwart the legislative inbreeding, pay-to-play cabals, and disdain for what the public wants or needs that has today been at the root of the Householder/FirstEnergy/H.B. 6 scandal.
It is truly ironic that, a month and a half after Householder and Borges are to be sentenced, Ohioans will go to the polls for an Aug. 8 special election greased by political insiders who seek to degrade that very citizen-initiated constitutional amendment power.
Misleading and biased ballot language tries to hide Issue 1′s true purpose. But make no mistake: There is a straight line from a Statehouse where the H.B. 6 dodges that allowed special-interest money to prevail are still at play to Issue 1 on the Aug. 8 ballot, seeking to stifle citizens’ ability to counter a corrupt General Assembly.
Any fair-minded assessment of what Householder, Borges and their co-conspirators wrought must take note of the many involved individuals never charged in the case, many of them still holding positions of power.
As cleveland.com’s Jake Zuckerman noted in a recent overview, Householder and Borges were found guilty of racketeering conspiracy for taking bribes that no one was indicted for paying.
Three other men and the dark-money group Generation Now also were indicted in the case; two men pleaded guilty and have yet to be sentenced; a third died by suicide. Generation Now also pleaded guilty.
At this stage, none of the utility officials who apparently authorized FirstEnergy’s funding of the H.B. 6 scandal has been charged with any wrongdoing.
In a deferred prosecution agreement, as part of which it agreed to pay a $230 million penalty, FirstEnergy admitted bribing the onetime chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Sam Randazzo. Mr. Randazzo, appointed by Gov. Mike DeWine, denies wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged with anything.
It appears that the federal investigation is continuing, and it should — root and branch. Federal investigators need to follow the trail wherever it leads, inside or outside the Statehouse.
Read the rest of the article here.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 9:47 PM
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