Utility members silent on Ohio Chamber’s opposition to Issue 1, but their money speaks volumes

Utility members of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce are silent on the industry group’s opposition to Issue 1, which aims to depoliticize how voting districts are drawn in Ohio. 

The Yes on Issue 1 campaign, also known as Citizens Not Politicians, aims to end partisan gerrymandering in Ohio, where Republican-drawn voting districts have for years enabled many state lawmakers to avoid competitive races.  

“An anti-gerrymandering measure could be headed to the ballot this year that, if passed and enacted, could make Ohio’s chambers more competitive in future elections,” according to the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. 

Steve Stivers, the Ohio Chamber’s President and CEO, acknowledged that Ohio’s current redistricting process is “flawed” last month, when the industry group nonetheless came out in opposition to Issue 1. 

Ohioans for a Healthy Economy, a 501(c)(4) dark money group affiliated with the Ohio Chamber, contributed $1 million in October to Issue 1 opponent Ohio Works during the first week of October. The IRS does not require 501(c)(4) nonprofits like Ohioans for a Healthy Economy to publicly disclose their donors. 

A Super PAC named the Ohioans for a Healthy Economy Action Fund, which is also connected to the Ohio Chamber. disclosed in a pre-general election filing with the FEC that it spent nearly $2 million between October 1 and 16, but did not disclose any contributions to Ohio Works. The Super PAC reported that it received $200,000 earlier this month from Ohioans for a Healthy Economy, Inc, the 501(c)(4). The Super PAC also received $50,000 from former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and $500,000 from Fair Courts America, a group connected to Republican megadonor Richard Uihlein of Illinois. 

American Electric Power and FirstEnergy, Ohio’s two largest electric utilities, are both members of the Ohio Chamber. AEP and FirstEnergy did not respond to emails from the Energy and Policy Institute requesting comment on whether they agree or disagree with the Ohio Chamber’s position on Issue 1, and asking if they’d funded Ohioans for a Healthy Economy. 

The Energy News Network has reported on how gerrymandering has made it hard for Ohio voters to hold state lawmakers accountable for years of utility corruption in the Buckeye State. 

Gerrymandering has hindered voters’ ability to hold lawmakers accountable despite FirstEnergy corruption scandal

FirstEnergy has paid at least $125,000 to fund the Ohio Chamber since 2021, according to corporate engagement reports posted publicly on the investor-owned utility company’s corporate responsibility website. $50,000 of that total was paid during the first half of this year. 

FirstEnergy admitted as part of a 2021 agreement with federal prosecutors that between 2017 and early 2020, it paid $60 million in bribes to influence then-Republican Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder. In exchange, Householder helped FirstEnergy secure over a billion dollars in ratepayer bailouts via H.B. 6. Householder was convicted of racketeering last year, and is now serving a twenty-year prison sentence. 

A slew of 501(c)(4) dark money groups with names like Generation Now and Partners for Progress were used to hide the flow of money from FirstEnergy to Householder’s operation. Generation Now pleaded guilty to racketeering in the Householder case, and the feds seized the funds remaining in the FirstEnergy-controlled Partners for Progress’s bank accounts.   

Over $3 million of the secret money from FirstEnergy was used to help elect a slate of “Team Householder” Republican candidates to the Ohio House in 2018, who then voted the following year to make Householder the new speaker and helped pass H.B. 6. Many of the state lawmakers who were part of “Team Householder” are still serving in the Ohio House or Senate today. 

State lawmakers eventually repealed portions of H.B. 6 that most benefit FirstEnergy, including a $1 billion bailout for several coal and nuclear plants owned by a bankrupt subsidiary named FirstEnergy Solutions. Other parts of H.B. 6 remain law today, including a ratepayer bailout of two coal-fired power plants owned by other major utilities through the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation and a rollback of Ohio’s clean energy standards for electric utilities. 

American Electric Power, which is still benefiting from H.B. 6 subsidies, has financial connections to the “No On Issue 1” campaign 

Marc Reitter, the President and COO of AEP Ohio, serves on the Ohio Chamber’s board of directors. Lobbyist Maria Haberman is on the board of the Ohio Chamber Research Foundation. 

AEP only publicly discloses the lobbying portion of its Ohio Chamber dues, which totaled $45,000 for 2021-2024, according to political engagement reports found on the utility company’s website. 

AEP is the largest beneficiary of H.B. 6’s ratepayer bailout of two coal-fired power plants owned by the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation, which counts AEP as its largest shareholder. Ohio ratepayers have been forced to pay half a billion dollars to bail out the OVEC plants through monthly riders tacked on to their electricity bills. 

Current Ohio House Speaker Jason Stephens and Senate President Matt Huffman, both Republicans, have resisted bipartisan efforts to repeal the OVEC bailout. 

The SEC is investigating AEP’s role in passing H.B. 6. The SEC investigation has included taking testimony and inquiries regarding Empowering Ohio’s Economy. AEP secretly paid $8.7 million to fund Empowering Ohio’s Economy between 2015 and 2019. Empowering Ohio’s Economy paid a total of $1.4 million to several 501(c)(4) dark money groups involved in the Householder racketeering case, including the Coalition for Growth and Opportunity, Generation Now, and Ohioans for Term Limits. 

Empowering Ohio’s Economy also contributed $35,000 to the Ohio Chamber Research Foundation from 2017 to  2018. 

Another 501(c)(4) dark money group called American Jobs and Growth Fund is the largest contributor to the “No On Issue 1” campaign Ohio Works. Last week, the Energy and Policy Institute reported on funding that the American Jobs and Growth Fund received in 2022 from the Oklahoma-based Alliance for Secure Energy, an industry association that counts AEP among its funders. 

Top image by Ɱ from Wikipedia Commons. Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

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