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To: Ohio Reporters, Editors, Columnists, and Editorial Boards

From: Michael McGovern, ProgressOhio

Date: February 25, 2021

Re: The Wheels Are Coming Off DeWine’s COVID-19 Response

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Despite widespread praise for his early handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gov. Mike DeWine’s response has become increasingly ineffective as Ohioans continue to struggle. Scandalous new developments in recent weeks have put a fine point on this failure. From a broken unemployment system, to an ineffective vaccine rollout, to massive data mismanagement, it is clear that the DeWine Administration is not up to the task of guiding our state through this crisis. 

As you continue to cover Gov. DeWine, we hope that your reporting and writing will take into account the context laid out below. A clear pattern has emerged: the DeWine Administration’s response to each new COVID-19 challenge is too little, too late.

Vaccine Fiasco

Despite having months to prepare, it is obvious that the DeWine administration had no unified plan for providing life-saving vaccines for Ohioans. While the governor has blamed a lack of supply, that is clearly not the only issue. Ohio continues to lag every one of our neighboring states in vaccination rates. Tellingly, Ohio has struggled to distribute vaccines, ranking at times among the worst in the country, illustrating that this was not simply a supply issue. 

Reporting has made clear that our lackluster numbers are due to Ohio’s disorganized, decentralized rollout. As has often been Gov. DeWine’s approach, he has simply passed the buck to local leaders, who have been left to fend for themselves. As state Rep. Allison Russo, a public health expert, has said, “To me the failure is we’ve known about these vaccines. We should have been planning in October. From my conversations with people who are on the ground, there really was not planning and coordination before we got the vaccine.”

We have seen story after story laying out the frustrations of everyday Ohioans trying to navigate the system. As cleveland.com noted, it takes, “‘luck, persistence and privilege” to get a vaccine in Ohio. Rather than clearly communicate, Gov. DeWine has left Ohioans in limbo. Unlike other states, we have been given almost no indication of future priority groups, so Ohioans under age 60, in front line jobs, and with serious but not the most critical underlying health conditions still do not know when their turn in line will be.

Despite these well-documented problems, there is no end in sight. For months, the DeWine administration knew vaccines were coming, but failed to build a centralized system for Ohioans to sign up. As of mid-February – fully two months after the first vaccines arrived in Ohio – Gov. DeWine admitted that they were still working on a centralized website. Two weeks later, details about the new system continue to trickle out, but we still do not have a firm timeline of when the website will be live. Other states, however, already have such websites up and running. Why has it taken Ohio so long?

Broken Unemployment System

The DeWine administration has effectively ignored Ohio’s broken unemployment system for nearly a year. Almost immediately after the pandemic’s economic impacts began to be felt in Ohio, we began to see story after story about how hard it has been for Ohioans to get the unemployment benefits they were owed. Yet for months, no action was taken. 

To make matters worse, Ohio’s Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, funded by federal CARES dollars, was completely overtaken by fraud. Despite being unable to adequately deliver benefits to those legitimately in need, the state managed to pay out more than $330 million in fraudulent claims. The Department of Jobs and Family Services claims to have put in place new measures to stop such fraud, but won’t discuss them. 

Despite all this, Gov. DeWine’s response has been wholly inadequate. On February 2, 2021, he said, “No one’s going to work a miracle. This was an avalanche that hit, along with the pandemic, so many Ohioans. And the system was simply not built for this.” But by that point, we had known the system was broken for nearly a year. In typical politician fashion, he announced a special commission to look into the unemployment system, not real action to help struggling families. Once again, what took them so long to deal with this problem? When will struggling Ohioans see real action from the governor? 

Unbelievable Data Mismanagement

Perhaps most stunning of all was that the DeWine Administration somehow “lost” more than 4,000 COVID-19 deaths – roughly a third of all deaths in the state. The lost data aligns almost perfectly with the tenure of new Department of Health Director Stephanie McCloud – a  political appointee with no medical background who was appointed to placate right-wing critics of the governor. 

Rather than take real real responsibility, McCloud and DeWine waited to announce this unbelievable news until 6pm on a Thursday, when few were paying attention. They subsequently blamed low level staff and did their best to minimize this incident. 

What is especially alarming is that this data mismanagement calls into question Gov. DeWine’s ongoing, opaque approach to COVID-19 restrictions that rely on ODH data. How can we trust Gov. DeWine when we can’t trust his administration to honestly share data?

Inadequate Budget Response

In addition to failing to properly deal with the vaccine rollout, our unemployment system, or Ohio’s COVID-19 data, it also now appears that Gov. DeWine will not adequately fund our state’s economic recovery. 

Ohio’s economy has been decimated by the pandemic, but Gov. DeWine’s proposed budget fails to meet the crisis our state faces. In a recent survey of Ohio economists, 87% believed that the $1 billion in DeWine’s budget for COVID-19 recovery efforts was wholly insufficient. Rather than provide Ohio with the resources needed to fully recover from this pandemic, Gov. DeWine is once again selling Ohioans short. 

The bottom line is, the wheels are coming off Gov. Mike DeWine’s COVID-19 response. The confusing vaccine rollout fiasco, the broken unemployment system, and losing track of thousands of deaths are part of the same pattern: the DeWine Administration’s failure to help Ohioans navigate the COVID-19 crisis. We need consistent, honest communication and bold leadership from the state. We aren’t getting it from Gov. DeWine.

TO: Ohio Reporters, Editors, and Editorial Boards

FROM: Michael McGovern, ProgressOhio

DATE: February 2021

RE: Links Between Casinos’ Sports Betting Effort and HB 6 Corruption 

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Overview

As we enter a new General Assembly, casinos appear to be poised for a big win with help from the same policymakers, lobbyists and consultants who supported the nuclear bailout law now at the center of the FBI’s ongoing bribery investigation.

As Ohio looks to create a new billion-dollar industry, it is vital that our state has full, transparent discussion about the individuals and entities involved. We must learn the lessons of the HB 6 fiasco and approach any legislation that favors particular corporations with extreme caution. 

Same Shady Characters

The lobbyists and elected officials working to promote the interests of casinos bear a striking resemblance to those behind the HB 6 fiasco. 

Lobbyist Neil Clark – indicted as part of the scheme – told reporters the FBI lured him to a 2019 meeting by promising introductions to hotel developers who want to offer sports betting. Clark didn’t realize until later that he was talking with undercover FBI agents running a sting operation. No other details of the sting have emerged, but evidence of the links between casino allies and the FBI’s bribery investigation continue to grow.

Lobbyist Leah Pappas represents both FirstEnergy and casino interests; and lobbyists Brooke Cheney and Victor Hipsley represent casinos owners and developer Jacobs Entertainment and bailout beneficiaries the Ohio Coal Association.

Former House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson sits on the Ohio Casino Control Commission. She also served on the board of Empowering Ohio’s Economy, a dark money group financed mostly by AEP. It funneled money to another dark money group, Generation Now, which entered a guilty plea last week to federal racketeering charges that it was the vehicle through which the bribes to Householder flowed that helped to finance the nuclear bailout.

Former state Sen. John Eklund served as lead sponsor of a Senate bill to put sports betting under the Casino Control Commission. He is senior counsel at the law firm Calfee Halter & Griswold that also employs Pappas. The firm also worked for Partners for Progress, FirstEnergy’s dark money entity. 

On its website, Calfee lists gaming among its areas of expertise. Even after the FBI indictments, of Householder and others, Eklund defended the bailout, calling it “sound public policy” and fighting efforts to repeal it.

Before Mike DeWine won the governor’s race, he and Lt. Gov. Jon Husted both competed to be the Republican Party’s nominee for governor. DeWine appeared reluctant to consider sports wagering and at times voiced opposition. Husted, however, made it clear that he’d consider it. Husted agreed to become DeWine’s running mate and now they both support allowing sports betting.

DeWine was not FirstEnergy’s top choice for governor. Early campaign contributions show that the powerful Akron-based utility preferred former Lieutenant Governor Mary Taylor or former House Speaker Jon Husted, but neither could overcome DeWine’s popularity. FirstEnergy contributed to DeWine’s gubernatorial committee only after Husted joined the ticket as his running mate. FirstEnergy would later contribute to DeWine’s transition account, over $500,000 to the Republican Governors Association, and to a dark money group supporting DeWine’s daughter, Alice DeWine, who ran for Greene County prosecutor.

After taking office, DeWine – with strong urging from Husted – made two important appointments that would serve FirstEnergy’s interests. He tapped long-time pro-utility lawyer Sam Randazzo to chair the PUCO and he made former FirstEnergy lobbyist Dan McCarthy his director of legislative affairs. 

Profits Over Students

With Gov. Mike DeWine’s state budget proposal now public, debate over the two-year spending plan moves the Ohio General Assembly where legislators will confront two priorities that could be headed for a collision: Bringing legal sports betting to Ohio and approving a constitutional system of paying for public schools. 

With the multitude of priorities the administration and lawmakers want to advance in the budget, a new source of state revenue — sports betting — will likely be an attractive opportunity. There is significant disagreement about whether casinos or Ohio’s lottery should administer future sports betting.

If Ohio is serious about fixing our broken school funding system, we need a serious public, transparent discussion of this issue, rather than a quick giveaway to another state-sponsored monopoly. Our goal must be to provide the best return for Ohio taxpayers, not secretly enriching a particular private interest. As we continue to grapple with the repercussions of the HB 6 scandal, we cannot afford to make the same mistakes again. 

Will DeWine and other Republicans ditch their dirty cash?

Last night, news broke that FirstEnergy had fired its CEO and other top executives involved in the HB 6 scandal. They cited violations of their code of conduct related to the federal investigation as the reason for their departure. This news came just hours after several of Larry Householder’s associates took plea bargains, including Juan Cespedes, who was allegedly the connection between FirstEnergy and Team Householder. 

Unsurprisingly, these fired executives gave lavishly to the campaigns of Ohio Republicans, including Gov. Mike DeWine. The DeWine/Husted committee received more than $36,000 from these executives and their families members. Frank Larose cleared over $35,000, while Keith Faber and Matt Huffman each received $5,000. 

“FirstEnergy’s Board of Directors can smell the stink of corruption on these executives – can Mike DeWine and other Ohio Republicans?” said ProgressOhio Managing Director Michael McGovern. “DeWine keeps contorting himself to keep his dirty cash – will this be any different?”

A full breakdown of the donations is available here.

Gov. DeWine has previously declined to return donations from FirstEnergy and other companies linked to the scandal because they had not been explicitly accused of wrongdoing. Now that FirstEnergy has fired top executives for violating its code of conduct as the company carries out an internal review related to the federal investigation, will DeWine finally return the dirty cash?

This entire scandal feels like pulling teeth – after each new piece of information is uncovered, DeWine and other Ohio Republicans manage to find the bare minimum they can do to satisfy demands for accountability. The truth is this: the entire Ohio GOP is built on corruption and voters have a chance next week to hold them accountable.

Records indicate Bob Young, GOP candidate in suburban Akron, may be under investigation after multiple fires at his properties

On May 9, 2020, Tallmadge and Akron firefighters responded to a fire at a discount furniture store owned by Bob Young, the Republican nominee in state House District 36. One firefighter sustained injuries. The fire is being investigated as a possible arson. 

As a part of the arson investigation, records indicate that Tallmadge police have subpoenaed files related to a suspicious 2014 fire at another one of Young’s properties.  

The records are available here.

“Voters deserve to know whether someone running to be their state representative is under investigation for arson,” said ProgressOhio Managing Director Michael McGovern. “Bob Young owes us answers.” 

State House district 36 is one of the most competitive in the state. Matt Shaughnessy, the Democratic candidate, is (ironically) a former firefighter. Polling released by ProgressOhio in September showed a tied race.