Jim Renacci: Mike DeWine must come clean about bailout scheme
This guest column was submitted by Jim Renacci, a Mike DeWine challenger in the 2020 Ohio governor race.
Ohio now ranks No. 1 in corruption.
This ranking has occurred under Gov. Mike DeWine’s watch. What did DeWine know about the nuclear plant bailout scheme, and when did he know it?
According to "What do I know? I'm just a lobbyist," a just-released book by now deceased lobbyist Neil Clark, DeWine knows plenty about the largest bribery scandal in American history.
In fact, the book alleges that a lobbyist who has already pled guilty to charges related to the scheme said that DeWine agreed to support legislation for the company in exchange for a $5 million contribution to benefit his campaign.
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Quid pro quo is Latin for “something for something." It is also another way of describing bribery.
In this example, it is alleged that DeWine pledged to support a piece of legislation that would have provided a subsidy of $1.3 billion to a large company. In exchange, that company, one of DeWine’s closest allies, would provide $5 million in corporate contributions in support of his campaign for governor.
The book alleges that part of this corrupt deal went down on Oct. 10, 2018, at the Columbus Club. DeWine’s spokeswoman has publicly acknowledged that he did meet with company officials on that day as part of a fundraiser for the Republican Governors Association.
It also appears that much of this money was received on DeWine’s behalf.
According to tax returns filed with the Internal Revenue Service, a secret, dark money, nonprofit organization called Securing Ohio’s Future raised $4.2 million in 2018 — and $2.1 million of that money was transferred to DeWine’s super PAC, Securing Ohio’s Future Action Fund.
This secret, dark money organization was formed in 2016 by Nicholas Wise, a former DeWine aide turned lobbyist.
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Most of the rest of the money was spent to indirectly help elect DeWine by the dark money organization. Tax records indicate that in 2018, another $300,000 was received from Partners for Progress Inc. and donated to Securing Ohio’s Future.
Ohio newspapers have reported that the company in question donated $20 million to them. Partners for Progress Inc. was formed by lobbyist-turned-DeWine-legislative-director Dan McCarthy.
Ohioans are fed up with these pay-to-play scandals.
And it is long past time that DeWine came clean about his involvement with them. Step one is for him to return these apparently tainted donations.
Jim Renacci is a business owner that operated 60 businesses. He served four terms in the U.S. Congress and was the 2018 Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from Ohio. He is challenging DeWine for Ohio governor in 2022.
Note from Opinion Editor Amelia Robinson: Through a spokesperson, DeWine declined an offer to respond to allegations in the book or Renacci's guest column. DeWine Press Secretary Dan Tierney calls the allegations baseless and noted that in July 2020, the U.S. attorney said the DeWine administration was not a target of the investigation.