Hemp repeal campaign ramps up
A campaign to repeal Ohio’s new intoxicating hemp law has hired dozens of paid workers as it races to collect nearly 250,000 voter signatures by a March 20 deadline.
In disclosures filed with the state, Ohioans for Cannabis Choice reported hiring Ohio Petitioning Partners, a Lorain County company that specializes in gathering signatures for political petitions. Michael Arno, a California petition consultant who is also working on the campaign, spoke at an event the group put on in Columbus last week.
In addition, the group disclosed hiring 68 people to work on the effort, according to disclosures Signal obtained from the Ohio Secretary of State’s office via a public records request.
A few of those people work in higher-level roles, like communications consultant Dennis Willard.
The rest appear to be either rank-and-file paid signature gatherers or employees of businesses helping with the effort. Social media activity shows the campaign is offering $9 per signature and trying to collect signatures in craft breweries, head shops – a couple of natural constituencies – and at large public events.
The disclosures are a sign that the repeal campaign has some money to spend – which should help them gather the required signatures in less than a month during the winter. Besides meeting the statewide signature number, the campaign also must collect a minimum amount in 44 of 88 counties – which requires signature drives across the state.
In an interview, Willard said 5,000 people or businesses have used his group’s website to either request to sign a petition, offer to circulate them, or request to host petition signing events. The campaign has a paid volunteer coordinator who is organizing regional volunteer directors, he said.
“We’re feeling very, very good about where we are right now, because we have the route for the paid circulation effort, and this groundswell of supporters who are really angry about this,” Willard said.
If the group manages to get enough signatures, the law will go on hold until a statewide vote in November.
Ohio Supreme Court tweaks rule for judges’ political speech
Ohio judges and judicial candidates could have more leeway to speak their minds on political issues following a rule change approved last week by the Ohio Supreme Court.
The court’s Republican majority amended what’s called the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct, the ethical code for all state judges and judicial candidates. One of the code’s longstanding rules limited what judges could say about issues that might come before them, prohibiting “political or campaign activity that is inconsistent with the independence, integrity, or impartiality of the judiciary.”
The court did not eliminate the rule, but it added language clarifying that constitutionally protected speech alone cannot be grounds for discipline.
The change, in part, cites a recent disciplinary case involving Tim Grendell, a Geauga County judge. In November, the court suspended Grendell for detaining two children who refused to visit their father amid a custody dispute. But justices rejected a recommendation by the court’s disciplinary arm to also discipline Grendell over comments he made while speaking to a local conservative Tea Party group, saying they were protected by the First Amendment.
In that decision, the court also struck down a state judicial rule that barred judges from offering public testimony over non-legislative matters, finding the restriction violated the First Amendment.
Ohio Supreme Court Justice Pat DeWine, a Republican, said the Grendell decision highlighted the need for the rule change. But he downplayed its effects, saying it simply recognizes judges’ existing First Amendment rights.
“The First Amendment is always going to prevail over conflicting state laws. But I think it just makes it more explicit,” he said.
The rule change comes during a period of heightened politicization of Ohio’s courts. The Republican-controlled state legislature voted in 2021 to add judicial candidates’ party affiliation to the ballot for November elections. That change has led to a string of defeats for Democratic Ohio Supreme Court candidates, who previously ran as nonpartisan candidates in the general election.
The court’s remaining Democrat, Justice Jennifer Brunner, is suing over the law change and trying to get it struck down as she runs for reelection this year.
Brunner’s lawsuit referenced the section of the ethical code affected by the new rule change – saying that requiring her to run as a Democrat while limiting her from commenting on political issues illegally restricted her ability to run for office. It’s unclear what effect the rule change might have on her arguments.
Brunner declined to comment on the rule change but said she recused herself from discussing it because of her lawsuit.
Republican Justice Pat Fischer said he was the only justice to vote against the rule change, which he said would further politicize state courts. He said Justice DeWine and Republican Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy have promoted it as permitting judges’ First Amendment Rights.
“That’s fine,” Fischer said. “But it’s going to lead a lot of people to raise the argument, ‘What I said is protected by my First Amendment rights.’ It’s a total disaster.”
At FirstEnergy bribery trial, the lawyers are the witnesses
State prosecutors in Summit County continue making their long-winded case that two FirstEnergy executives conspired to pay a $4.3 million bribe to the chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Sam Randazzo. In exchange, they say Randazzo supported favorable rulings and policies for the company, resulting in higher electric costs for millions of Ohioans.
The theory is simple enough. But the alleged bribe existed within the technocracy and bureaucracy of a heavily regulated, Fortune 500 company serving a multistate power grid designed to perfectly balance its around-the-clock economic and engineering demands. And the transactions were executed, per the prosecution, by sophisticated professionals determined to cover their tracks.
That means most of the witnesses are themselves legal and or technical experts in an arcane world that few understand.
There was FirstEnergy’s ex-Chief Ethics Officer, Ebony Yeboah-Amankwah, a lawyer, who described her oversight of payments to Randazzo’s consulting company and her advice to the CEO against paying the $4.3 million. And the company’s director of rates and regulatory affairs, Eileen Mikkelsen, who, while not a lawyer, worked with company attorneys in multiple states as they navigated rate cases that establish electric prices. That included correspondence with Randazzo.
Both Yeboah-Amankwah and Mikkelsen negotiated immunity agreements in exchange for their testimony, meaning they can’t be prosecuted for the testimony they provide.
There’s also Mark Hayden, a company attorney who said he was “separated” from the company after his years of griping about what he called a “bulls—” contract between FirstEnergy and Randazzo.
Meanwhile, Former PUCO Chair Asim Haque, an attorney, testified about an “odd” conversation and implied threat he received from Randazzo. Matt Brakey, an energy consultant who graduated law school, testified as a victim of Randazzo’s theft along with other big electric customers. Even Randazzo’s financial planner, Mark Coffey, who was licensed as an attorney, was called to testify.
The takeaway? An alleged white collar crime scheme of epic proportions has involved scores of white collar witnesses, with varying degrees of culpability or awareness of something improper afoot. Now it’s up to the jurors – who are likely not lawyers, engineers or energy experts – to untangle a complicated set of actors, incentives and clues.
Mark the Calendar
The Ohio Republican Party will hold a meeting on Friday to consider whether to endorse in the contested primary elections for secretary of state and state treasurer. Both races are lower-profile, downballot contests, but still politically intriguing for their own reasons.
In the News
Vaping and e-cigarettes: The Ohio Supreme Court agreed to hear a case Tuesday that could decide whether state officials can deploy Ohio’s consumer protection laws to ban the sale of flavored vapes and e-cigarettes. Read more from Jake Zuckerman.
SB1 compliance: Ohio Republican lawmakers are sending another message to public colleges and universities. Amy Morona reports on new legislation that takes last year’s sweeping higher education overhaul law a step further by tying institutions’ compliance to their state funding.
SAVE America Act: Republicans in Congress are pushing legislation that would force states to quickly adopt a flurry of new restrictions around voting, making it harder for many eligible voters to cast ballots and for states to run their elections. Read more from our partners at NOTUS.
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Data center pushback: Wilmington City Council, in Clinton County, postponed voting on a 471-acre data center campus proposed by Amazon Web Services (AWS), per Data Center Dynamics. The $4 billion development is facing pushback from locals.
Wexner donations: Members of Congress have accused Ohio billionaire Les Wexner of lying about and downplaying his relationship with his former financial adviser, Jeffrey Epstein, The Columbus Dispatch reports . Members of Congress are interviewing Wexner in his Columbus-area home. Meanwhile, some politicians are returning their donations from the retail mogul.
Cities push back on ICE: The Columbus City Council is moving quickly to advance legislation that would restrict federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers operating in the city, although council members acknowledge what they can control is limited. Read more from The Columbus Dispatch.