Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost is preparing a lawsuit to block Ohio consumers’ money from flowing to First Energy, should the Ohio General Assembly fall asleep at the wheel and fail to repeal House Bill 6 (HB 6), a years-long, $1 billion-plus conspiracy against Ohioans launched by state Rep. Larry Householder (R–Corruption) in 2018 and 2019.
For those playing at home, Householder served as Speaker of the House from 2001 to 2004, a reign that ended when the Federal Bureau of Investigations launched an investigation into allegations that Householder and his aides took kickbacks from vendors and traded legislation for campaign contributions.
Before he even announced his candidacy, Householder, First Energy lobbyists and other Capitol Square fat cats planned the creation of a $60 million slush fund called Generation Now. Generation Now’s stated purpose was “social welfare and economic development,” but its real purpose was paying off Ohio lawmakers to support House Bill 6 and pushing a $1 billion corporate-welfare scheme for First Energy.
I know, I know… it’s truly shocking that a guy who did the crime-ing once did the crime-ing again, as soon as he sat down in his office chair in the Riffe Building.
Well, not that shocking.
Householder cronies—26 Democrats and 26 Republicans—were rewarded with donations from the “Growth & Opportunity PAC,” a political action committee incorporated in July 2015 in the name of D. Eric Lycan, a Lexington, Kentucky, attorney who previously served as counsel for U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell’s (R–KY) 2014 re-election campaign and the Kentucky Republican Party.
Householder, Capitol Square swamp creatures Jeff Longstreth, Matt Borges, Neil Clark, and Juan Cespedes, were indicted last month.
“I’m hoping they get a repeal done,” Yost told the Toledo Blade on August 26. “If they don’t, though, my office is preparing legal action and among the things we’re going to ask for is an injunction to halt the imposition of a surcharge, its collection, or its disbursement to the First Energy successor.”
Earlier in August, Yost warned 36 individuals, including current Ohio House and Senate lawmakers, to preserve all records concerning HB 6, Generation Now, FirstEnergy and a host of related front groups connected to Larry Householder, including Partners for Progress, a group connected to the scamola run by Dan McCarthy… Gov. Mike DeWine’s director of legislative affairs.
Oh, did we mention that McCarthy’s previous employer is First Energy? And that McCarthy helped write HB 6?
So… it’s great that Yost is readying a “Plan B” to stop the Householder Tax, but why is Dan McCarthy getting to skate free? What does DeWine—who enthusiastically signed HB 6 into law—know about the Householder scandal that he’s not telling Ohioans?
