Editorial: Ending Ohio corruption
Toledo Blade
Editorial Board
June 29, 2023
The Justice Department has identified Ohio’s most appalling problem: a culture of corruption in the Capitol. (“Householder sentence must send a message, prosecution contends,” Monday.)
The sentencing memorandum asking for harsh sentences for convicted bribery conspirators Larry Householder and Matt Borges says it’s the main deterrent against “business as usual on Cap Square” that has metastasized into a cancer of casual criminality.
“Numerous lobbyists, law firm, consultants and strategists knew Householder … was receiving millions of dollars from FirstEnergy while advancing the bailout. Rather than report Householder’s and FirstEnergy’s conduct to law enforcement these individuals knowingly furthered the enterprise’s efforts.”
Prosecutors conclude crime pays “handsomely” at the Ohio Statehouse. For FirstEnergy a $61 million expenditure on Statehouse bribes produced a $1.3 billion bailout, more than a 20 to 1 return on investment.
Former House Speaker Householder was the “mastermind” behind a scheme of incredible complexity and sophistication according to the feds.
Moreover, the conspiracy was just getting started on a path of destructive corruption.
Team Householder planned a ballot issue to amend the constitution to remain in the speaker’s well for 16 years. Efforts to make sports gambling legislation into a pay-to-play bonanza were already well under way.
It took wiretaps, hundreds of subpoenas, and dozens of interviews to unravel the scheme to make all Ohio electric rate payers bailout FirstEnergy nuclear plants and coal-fired plants for the rest of the state’s electric utilities.
Prosecutors are incredulous, along with all others who realize corruption attacks the bedrock principals of democracy, that Ohio has done nothing to enact laws to protect against the sort of conspiracy Householder, Borges, and FirstEnergy created, with the assistance of unindicted co-conspirators throughout state government.
We strongly support the Justice Department request for a full 20-year prison sentence for former Speaker Householder and 5 to 8 years for former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Borges.
The Blade concluded upon their trial’s end (Editorial: “Victim is Ohio,” March 12) that only the harshest possible punishment can change “business as usual” at the Statehouse.
While we are hopeful Federal Judge Timothy Black will make deterrence of corruption in Ohio the cause for sentences that match prosecutors’ recommendations, we repeat our warning of a cynical backlash against the Justice Department if Householder and Borges are punished for accepting a bribe, but FirstEnergy executives who authorized the payments go uncharged. (Editorial: “Injustice Department?” Nov. 17)
The Justice Department notes the “wide-scale” use of the same dark-money, independent, political nonprofits by Ohio politicians and the “risk” of similar corruption. Prosecutors correctly contend this system does “immeasurable damage to the institution of democracy in Ohio.”
The best way to destroy the danger of Ohio democracy corrupted by secret corporate money is to go after the bribe-payers at FirstEnergy.
Read the rest of the article here.
posted by Kathie Bracy at 11:05 PM
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