DeWine on House Bill 6: 'We all make mistakes. Every call I make as governor is not right'

Putting Sam Randazzo on the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio could go down as one of the biggest mistakes of Mike DeWine's governorship.

"I would say this one probably has the most profound stink to it of any decision that Mike DeWine has made. And what is really notable is that it had the stink from the very first moment," said University of Cincinnati political science professor David Niven. "This was not a Boy Scout gone bad that he appointed to a significant position."

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DeWine named Randazzo to the powerful board in early 2019 despite being warned that Randazzo was too close to Akron-based FirstEnergy.

Randazzo received a $4.3 million payment from FirstEnergy shortly before DeWine picked him — a payment that DeWine's top aide knew about but failed to tell him the details of it.

"I'm not worried about my legacy," DeWine said on Wednesday. "Look, we all make mistakes. Every call I make as governor is not right. I do the best I can. I base it on the facts that I have."

Randazzo had a reputation as an attorney with deep knowledge of the arcane and complex world of utility law.

But Randazzo turned out to be a Trojan horse for FirstEnergy Corp., according to prosecutors. And DeWine let him through the doors of state government.

From inside state government, Randazzo worked to write and pass House Bill 6, a $1.3 billion bailout bill for FirstEnergy, and scuttled a rate case that likely would have led the PUCO to order lower electricity rates for FirstEnergy customers.

Ohio House Bill 6 corruption case: Who is Chuck Jones?

Randazzo and former FirstEnergy executives Chuck Jones and Michael Dowling were indicted Feb. 9 in a pay-to-play scheme to rig state government to advance FirstEnergy's business interests.

"Together, Jones, Dowling, Randazzo and his shell companies worked in concert to steal the power of government and bend it to the will of FirstEnergy," said a state indictment released this week. The men pleaded not guilty on Tuesday.

Who wanted Randazzo on the PUCO?

Shortly after they were elected, DeWine and Lt. Gov.-elect Jon Husted took a private dinner meeting with Jones and Dowling at the Athletic Club of Columbus in December 2018.

At the dinner, according to state prosecutors, the executives pressed DeWine to consider appointing Randazzo as PUCO chairman. A FirstEnergy lobbyist and longtime DeWine adviser offered tips on how to lobby him: "Explain things like (DeWine) doesn't know anything about it — and be surprised when he does."

Later that night, Jones and Dowling paid a visit to Randazzo at his Columbus home. The men reached a deal for FirstEnergy to pay Randazzo $4.33 million. Randazzo had yet to apply for the PUCO job, but the men felt confident in his appointment.

The three men maintain that the payment was money due to Randazzo to close out a consulting agreement. Prosecutors described it as a bribe.

"It was not a gift: Randazzo would work hard for FirstEnergy from inside the government," state prosecutors said in the indictment against Randazzo, Jones and Dowling.

Six years later, Gov. DeWine doesn't recall Randazzo's name coming up at the dinner. And he still maintains that appointing Randazzo — an experienced energy attorney — made sense at the time.

"I was looking for someone who was really a subject matter expert in the area of utilities," DeWine said Tuesday. "There was no one who knew more, frankly, about it than Sam Randazzo."

DeWine top aide knew of the $4.3 million payment

During the PUCO appointment process, DeWine's then-chief of staff, Laurel Dawson, learned that Randazzo had received a $4.3 million payment from FirstEnergy, according to the indictment. Dawson also received a 198-page report from interested parties opposed to Randazzo leading the PUCO.

However, the governor said he didn't learn of the $4.3 million until the FBI searched Randazzo's Columbus condo in November 2020.

Why didn't Dawson tell DeWine about the payment in January 2019 as he considered appointing Randazzo?

"You'd have to ask her," the governor said on Wednesday.

DeWine's spokesman Dan Tierney said it would be "highly unusual" for DeWine to be informed of every payment to a potential appointee during the vetting process. DeWine knew that Randazzo had worked for FirstEnergy and industrial consumers.

Ohio House Bill 6 case: Who is Sam Randazzo?

Dawson was called as a witness in the state case very recently, Tierney confirmed and Cleveland.com first reported.

Laurel Dawson's husband, Mike Dawson, worked as a consultant to FirstEnergy and Randazzo loaned him $10,000 in 2016 — a loan that Randazzo failed to disclose on his ethics statement, according to the indictment. DeWine said he hasn't asked Laurel Dawson for any proof that the loan has been paid off.

"I have extreme faith in her. She is not only a great public servant, but she's a good person," DeWine said, noting that Laurel Dawson has been his top aide for decades. She is still employed in the DeWine administration.

Others in DeWine's cabinet and orbit had ties to FirstEnergy.

• Lt. Gov. Jon Husted has a lengthy history with FirstEnergy. The company's political action committee has donated more than $104,000 to Husted's campaigns between 2000 and 2016, according to a USA TODAY Network Ohio analysis of state campaign finance data. As speaker of the Ohio House, Husted did not eliminate side deals that allow utilities to strike secret agreements with large energy users.

• Dan McCarthy lobbied for FirstEnergy for a decade and served as president of the company's dark money group, Partners for Progress, before DeWine named him as the governor's legislative director.

• Josh Rubin is a former FirstEnergy lobbyist. He served as an aide to DeWine when he served in the U.S. Senate and managed DeWine's 2000 reelection campaign.

• PUCO Nominating Council Chairman Mike Koren, whom DeWine appointed to select finalists for utility regulators, is a former FirstEnergy lobbyist.

How the case could impact the 2026 race for governor

Last year, federal prosecutors won convictions in a racketeering case against former Ohio House speaker Larry Householder and former Ohio Republican Party chairman Matt Borges. And they indicted Randazzo in December on 11 felony counts for his alleged role in the sweeping pay-to-play scheme.

But the feds have yet to charge Jones and Dowling. U.S. Attorney Ken Parker said his team is still "doing our work to pursue justice."

Parker's delay provided an opening for Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican with an eye on running for governor in 2026.

DeWine's lieutenant governor, Husted, also is running for governor.

Niven said Yost could be trying to prosecute wrongdoing but also to score political points in what could be a tough primary race.

"I think part of what's really, really interesting here is that there are so many of those text messages — not just meetings with DeWine and Husted — but messages between the FirstEnergy folks saying that they were the lifeline, that they were out there triaging. DeWine and Husted were out there saving this thing," Niven said. "So, they're not at the end point yet. The ride isn't over yet."

Niven said despite the mistake of appointing Randazzo, DeWine's legacy is probably safe from too much damage. But he could further strengthen it by pushing through ethics reforms and a full repeal of House Bill 6. The governor has been too slow to recognize how deep the scandal runs, he said.

"He is missing an opportunity. The savvy move would be to go hard the other way."

Information from The Associated Press is included in this report.

Laura Bischoff and Jessie Balmert are reporters for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: House Bill 6 case: Top aide didn't tell DeWine about $4.3M bribe