With over $1B dollars in dark money flowing into American elections over the past decade, to say that any one instance of secret spending might be the most flagrantly corrupt would be to bestow quite a distinction. But the scandal unfurling in Ohio around House Speaker Larry Householder is shaping up to be a strong contender.
As the FBI has laid bare in an 82 page affidavit, Householder was at the center of a pay-to-play scandal in which he and several lobbyists took $61M from the utility company FirstEnergy, laundering it through a 501(c)(4) shell group called Generation Now to hide its true source from public view. In addition to buying the House Speakership for Householder, the money was used to shore up legislative support for HB6, a bill that gave a $1.5B bailout to FirstEnergy business interests by obliterating Ohio’s alternative energy standards — and then to beat back a voter initiative to overturn the bill.
Much ink has already been spilled about the details of this case, as it will no doubt continue to be. But what must not be overlooked is how this possibly could have been allowed to happen — and how to ensure it will never happen again.
Upon announcing Householder’s arrest, U.S. Attorney David DeVillers was asked to weigh in on this question. Understandably, he stopped short of making a specific policy prescription, but nonetheless offered, “anytime you can have transparency in law and in campaign finance, that’s good for everybody.” Responding to a follow-up question about whether the money-laundering scheme would have been possible if Generation Now had been required to disclose its donors, DeVillers answered, “I don’t see how it possibly could have.”
The bottom line is that he’s right. The kind of blatant corruption this case exemplifies is highly preventable with meaningful transparency. It’s not rocket science, it’s just common sense. Voters hold corruption accountable when they see it. But they have to be able to see it. Ohioans, like all Americans, should have a right to know the true sources of money being spent to influence their elections, full stop. That right should be enumerated constitutionally and by law.
When the Supreme Court delivered its infamous Citizens United decision, opening the floodgates for unlimited corporate spending in elections and paving the way for the channeling of money through groups like Generation Now, those in the majority made two fundamental assumptions. The first is that this kind of “independent” spending would be carried out…well, independent of candidates, ostensibly removing the risk that it would breed corruption or the appearance thereof. The second is that the voting public would be able to see plainly where the money was really coming from, and take that information into account when making decisions at the ballot box.
Clearly, neither of these assumptions has borne out in reality.
But it is well within the constitutional purview of Legislatures — and in states like Ohio, where there is a right to petition voters directly through the ballot, voters themselves — to hold these assumptions to account, through the force of state law and constitutions.
In states such as North Dakota, Alaska, and Arizona, voters have begun to do exactly this, mobilizing to demand through the ballot that they have a right to know the true identities of the special interests spending unlimited money to buy their elections.
If the Ohio Legislature doesn’t act immediately to stop the flow of dark money in state elections, Ohio voters should take this issue to the ballot. Because Ohioans deserve to know they are electing a government that works for them, not one that swindles them out of their tax dollars in self-enriching games of smoke and mirrors.
Jay Costa is Executive Director of Voters’ Right to Know, a nonpartisan organization advancing the transparency of political spending in the United States.
