Ohioans deserve to know the whole truth in FirstEnergy scandal | Casey Weinstein

There’s an old saying: It’s good to have friends in high places. That couldn't be more true for those with close ties to the DeWine-Husted administration, especially when there’s a money trail with connections that go all the way back to Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. and its criminal role in the largest political corruption scandal in Ohio’s history.

Thanks to recent state indictments of Sam Randazzo, DeWine’s handpicked chief of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), and two former executives of FirstEnergy, we now know there’s more to the ties between the DeWine-Husted administration, FirstEnergy and the infamous House Bill 6 corruption then we knew before. New details show Gov. Mike DeWine’s then chief of staff, Laurel Dawson, knew FirstEnergy had paid Randazzo a $4.3 million bribe before DeWine appointed him to head the agency meant to oversee power utility companies exactly like FirstEnergy.

We also now know the DeWine-Husted administration received an internal memo detailing Randazzo’s shady pattern of unethical behavior and that it had knowledge of Randazzo’s 2016 personal loan of $10,000 to a member of the administration. Despite all of that, Randazzo still got the job … it’s good to have friends in high places!

The rogues gallery of high-ranking government officials with questionable ties to FirstEnergy and HB 6 is filled with some very recognizable names. There’s of course Randazzo, former Republican House Speaker Larry Householder and former chair of the Ohio Republican Party Matt Borges.

One name not so recognizable but with an equally questionable past that has raised red flags before is Dan McCarthy, a current DeWine appointee to the Ohio State Racing Commission. Before I go any further, I want to mention that McCarthy is a longtime Democrat, so my motive isn’t partisan. My motive is the truth.

To understand McCarthy’s rise to this top role, you have to understand how he got there, and that takes us back to the DeWine-Husted-FirstEnergy-House Bill 6 cabal. In 2017, McCarthy was a lobbyist for FirstEnergy and ran the political nonprofit group Partners for Progress. Its role in the scandal was to direct millions of dollars of dark money from FirstEnergy to organizations working to elect Householder as speaker of the House, including Generation Now, an organization that, wait for it, Householder controlled. In essence, McCarthy was FirstEnergy’s bagman for Householder.

McCarthy claimed his actions were legal and was never indicted for his role in the HB 6 scandal despite my calls to have him fully investigated. But thanks to his friends in high places, in 2019, McCarthy left his job as a lobbyist to take a job as DeWine’s director of legislative affairs. That’s right! He jumped ship from previously running FirstEnergy’s dark money operation to running DeWine’s legislative affairs operation.

After three years on the job, McCarthy resigned citing, “the pace of the grind.” But fast-forward two years later and McCarthy was back in the DeWine-Husted web, this time being appointed in May 2023 to the previously mentioned role as a chairman on the Ohio State Racing Commission.

Legally or illegally, this is how people like Dan McCarthy, Laurel Dawson and Sam Randazzo have been rewarded — by friends in high places. The recent state indictments tell us that that’s not the whole truth, though, and Ohioans deserve to know the whole truth. Nothing less.

I fully support and urge you to read a letter that Minority Leaders Nikki Antonio and Allison Russo recently sent to the U.S. Department of Justice asking for more federal assistance in the HB 6 investigation. Until every friend in a high place is investigated and exposed, then the lack of deterrence all but assures that this will happen again.

We need a thorough and fair investigation no matter where it leads. I won’t stop demanding the truth and neither should you.

Casey Weinstein is a Democratic state representative from Hudson.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ohioans deserve to know truth in FirstEnergy scandal | Casey Weinstein