Democratic state lawmakers said Wednesday they will roll out three bills targeting bribes and other forms of political corruption post-House Bill 6, the law tied to a nuclear power bailout scandal that resulted in numerous federal convictions and indictments.
The 2019 law, which prosecutors have said was part of a broader racketeering scheme, landed Republican former House speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party chair Matt Borges in federal prison.
Rep. Dani Isaacsohn (D-Cincinnati) said at a Wednesday news conference he assumed he was joining a legislature actively working on political ethics reform legislation when he was elected in November 2022.
“I was shocked when I got here to find that nothing had been done, that the culture hadn’t changed at all,” Isaacsohn said. “That it was just business as usual.”
Isaacsohn and state Rep. Bride Rose Sweeney (D-Westlake) reintroduced House Bill 250 last month from last session. HB 250 would require the disclosure of donations to 501(c)(4)s, political lobbying organizations that can shield their donors from the public.
New York and Connecticut have disclosure laws on the books, according to the law firm Skadden, but House Speaker Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said he believes it isn’t Ohio’s call to make.
“That’s an issue that’s outside of the Statehouse, that’s controlled by federal law,” Huffman said Wednesday.
Two other Democratic-led House bills, neither of which were formally filed as of Wednesday afternoon, would limit counter-petitioners in their actions during the referendum process and curb political donors from securing contracts with the state, Sweeney said.
“It’s about ensuring that when people go to the ballot box, they trust that the person that they elected to this body is acting in the best interests of their community,” state Rep. Desiree Tims (D-Dayton) said Wednesday. “Not a corporation, not a billionaire, not a football team, not a producer, not an energy company.”
Huffman also said his caucus is working on drafting its own ethics reform.
Without majority caucus backing, the Democratic-led bills are unlikely to move.
