This is an insane criminal case out of Ohio that illustrates all of the problems that inevitably arise from unlimited secret political contributions (aka “dark money”). Some notes from the criminal complaint: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2020/07/21/ohio-bribery-case-state-official-charged-federal-prosecutors/5477862002/

A struggling Ohio nuclear power plant wanted a $1 billion taxpayer-funded bailout. So the corporation secretly pumped $60 million into dark money groups controlled by the current Ohio House Speaker, Larry Householder.

The secret nuclear money helped elect Householder and legislative allies, who then paid back their corporate benefactors by pushing the nuclear bailout into law; the money also paid for ads supporting the bill, and thwarted a voter-led effort to overturn it.

The Ohio House speaker knew where the secret money was coming from, but the public did not.

As a result, the public couldn’t track what the nuclear company was getting in return...and as it turns out, it was getting an awful lot.

Householder’s dark money group received millions from the nuclear company, which he used to back his campaign and those of his allies, who made him House speaker.

After Householder took control of the Speakership--thanks to millions in secret money from the nuclear company--he pushed through a $1B bailout for the company's nuclear power plants.

Even WITHOUT knowing about the nuclear money that secretly backed the bill, voters were pissed.

Voters tried to overturn the nuclear bailout via the ballot process—and the company secretly bankrolled Householder’s dark money group to thwart that effort.

The way they crushed the voter-led effort was incredibly dirty, too:

In addition to funding ads, Householder’s dark money group hired signature collection firms so they’d be conflicted-out of gathering signatures for the anti-bailout initiative.

They even approached individual signature petition gatherers and offered them money to go home.

(oh yeah, the Householder routed payday lender funds to his dark money group too, because of course he'd want to hide their support)

There are obvious parallels with Scott Walker’s dark money scheme in Wisconsin.

A mining company routed $700K into Walker’s dark money group, and after Walker won reelection, his top priority was passing a mining bill written by the company’s lobbyists. https://www.propublica.org/article/in-wisconsin-dark-money-got-a-mining-company-what-it-wanted

This is a reminder that in those rare instances when we can glimpse behind the dark money curtain, we often find secret cash from dirty or controversial donors.

And those donors often want something from the politicians they are bankrolling—without any public scrutiny.