Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com: Corporate jets, bribes and dark money: Householder trial spotlights weaknesses in Ohio ethics laws

COLUMBUS, Ohio – In federal court this week, prosecutors painted a picture of largesse that surrounded the bribery scheme through which Larry Householder became one of the state’s most powerful politicians.

The details involved Householder’s 2017 flight on FirstEnergy Corp’s corporate jet to Washington, D.C., as well as tens of millions of dollars in secret campaign contributions FirstEnergy later funneled through a “dark money” political group.

That money, which prosecutors and FirstEnergy officials have said were bribes, in turn funded Householder’s meteoric political rise. It also benefitted Householder personally, prosecutors have said, to the tune of more than $400,000 in undisclosed money given to Householder by a top political aide. In exchange, Householder helped pass House Bill 6, which charged Ohio electricity customers $1.3 billion to bail out two nuclear plants owned by a former FirstEnergy subsidiary.

Each step highlights grey areas or even loopholes in state ethics laws that either enabled the activities or, perhaps, made them perfectly legal. But besides repealing HB6 after the plants’ owners said it no longer wanted the bailout money, lawmakers have taken no action to address any of the ethical issues underlined in the case, with several bills stalling despite at times getting bipartisan support.

Catherine Turcer, executive director of the good-government group Common Cause Ohio, said it’s “astonishing” that lawmakers have yet to take up any reforms in response to the Householder scandal.

“It’s clear to me that the people in power like the structure that we have right now, and that they’re benefitting from the lack of transparency,” Turcer said. …

Turcer said there’s a public interest in limiting lawmakers’ and other politicians’ ability to accept trips on private jets.

“Any time our lawmakers are given perks from folks who want something, it’s a problem if our goal is reducing quid pro quo,” Turcer said. …

Turcer, the good-government advocate, said a lack of transparency in political spending is the core issue behind the abuses revealed by the House Bill 6 scandal. She said campaign-finance laws won’t prevent future scandals. But they could discourage them, she said.

“I look at them like guardrails,” Turcer said. “If we have a speed limit that’s 55, 65, 70. You have people who might go 72. They might even go 80. But they aren’t going 120.”