COLUMBUS, Ohio — A petitioner working for a campaign to repeal Ohio House Bill 6, the recently passed nuclear bailout law, called local police Tuesday after he said someone working for the pro-HB6 side shoved him and knocked his cell phone out of his hands.

Harold Chung of Las Vegas was collecting signatures outside a library in Dublin, a Columbus suburb, when he said a woman who had been following other petitioners around assaulted him. He said he was uninjured, but his phone was damaged.

“I took a picture of her and she hit the camera out of my hand, and then she dropped some of her fliers,” Chung told a 911 dispatcher, according to a copy of the audio released Wednesday in response to a public records request. "So I was helping pick them up for her and she kind of shoulder blocked me away.”

The matter remains under investigation by police, a Dublin city spokeswoman said Wednesday. No arrests were made.

(Scroll down to read a police report for the incident, or click here for a PDF.)

The confrontation occurred shortly after Generation Now, a pro-HB6 political group, hired and deployed what are known as “petition blockers” — campaign workers whose job it is to interfere with the signature gathering process needed to get a state issue on the ballot. The anti-HB6 side, Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, has until Oct. 21 to gather roughly 266,000 valid signatures from registered voters to put the issue on the November 2020 ballot. The woman wore a lanyard identifying her as a blocker for a company hired by Generation Now, the pro-HB6 group.

Reached by phone, Chung declined to comment further. ​

Another pro-HB6 group, Ohioans for Energy Security, has launched more than $2 million in hyperbolic TV ads and mailed political literature telling people not to sign the petitions.

The ads have suggested without evidence that the Chinese government is behind the repeal effort, and falsely said people who sign the petition are giving their information to the Chinese government. (Petition signatures are public record available to anyone.)

The basis for the claim is an investment a Chinese bank made with a power-plant developer associated with the repeal effort. The same bank invested in plants owned by FirstEnergy, which is associated with the nuclear plants benefitted by HB6.

In an email Wednesday, Curt Steiner, a spokesman for Generation Now, said his organization’s canvassers have been trained on how to conduct themselves.

“Generation Now has directed all field staffers to operate in a courteous and polite manner as they interact with anyone on the street,” he said.

This emphasis will continue, he said.

HB6 rescues two nuclear plants owned by FirstEnergy Solutions — the Davis-Besse plant near Toledo and the Perry plant northeast of Cleveland. FirstEnergy long has sought subsidies for the plants, which have struggled to compete with cheaper natural gas. It also subsidizes two coal plants — one in Indiana, the other in Ohio — owned by Ohio utility companies.

Proponents say rescuing the plants protects thousands of jobs, maintains a major source of carbon-free electricity in Ohio and preserves energy diversity. In recent weeks, as the repeal effort has ramped up, they’ve tried to reframe the debate around possible foreign ownership interests in the U.S. power grid.

Opponents say HB6 is a corporate bailout for two mismanaged, privately owned plants.

Supporters of the measure include labor unions, nuclear power advocates, and local officials from areas near the nuclear plants. Critics include environmental groups, the fossil-fuel industry, renewable energy companies, and some small-government activists.