Ron Schwane, Associated Press

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COLUMBUS, Ohio — From well-placed campaign contributions, to lobbyist-engineered testimony, to millions of dollars in mysteriously funded TV and radio ads, the effort to get the state legislature to pass a bill bailing out two nuclear plants owned by a former FirstEnergy subsidiary is a textbook example of how big money can be used to influence public policy in Ohio.

A costly political campaign by a business interest aiming to change Ohio law isn’t necessarily unusual. See the 2011 effort that legalized casino gambling in Ohio, or the failed 2015 campaign that tried to legalize marijuana.

“This seems to be fairly typical of what’s done around the country,” said Mark Weaver, a longtime Republican political consultant in Columbus. “Perhaps there’s more money being spent on this than most.”

But because of a confluence of factors — a heated House leadership battle, the bankruptcy of the nuclear plants’ parent company, increased disclosure requirements from Facebook for political ads, and, yes, some mistakes made by lobbyists who didn’t sufficiently cover their tracks, we are able to more clearly see how the footprints from the campaign to pass House Bill 6 trace back to the business that would receive more than $150 million in subsidies that bill would create.

As another Republican political operative in Columbus put it: “If you gave me a blank check and asked how do we save a company, this is how roughly I would do it.”

Here’s a walk-through of all the ways FirstEnergy and its allies have worked to get HB 6 passed.

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1. Help elect new legislative leadership

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Cleveland.com file

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FirstEnergy, headquartered in Akron, made a powerful friend when in 2018, they helped Rep. Larry Householder win a heated battle within the Republican Party to control the Ohio House of Representatives.

In October 2017, Householder was among the co-sponsors of legislation to allow FirstEnergy to charge customers $2.50 each to rescue the nuclear plants, which had become unprofitable over the years due to the emergence of cheaper natural gas. Without help, Davis-Besse in Ottawa County is scheduled to be closed in 2020. Perry would close in 2021.

But the bill was blocked by House leadership at the time. Then- speaker Cliff Rosenberger, opposed subsidizing the plants. As did his preferred successor, state Rep. Ryan Smith.

So, as previously reported by cleveland.com, FirstEnergy during the 2018 election cycle gave more than $154,000 to Householder and a slate of Republican House candidates who backed his campaign to lead the Ohio House of Representatives.

Around the same time, two "dark-money" political groups — meaning the source of their funding can't be tracked — spent more than $1.6 million on ads either supporting Householder's candidates or opposing those who backed Smith.

One of those pro-Householder groups, the Growth and Opportunity PAC, raised $1 million from a single donor — a nonprofit called Generation Now. (Remember that name.) The group's business address in Ohio is a house owned by Jeff Longstreth, a longtime Householder adviser.

Smith got support from his own deep-pocketed dark-money groups. But Householder's candidates ended up winning 11 of the 12 seats that were up for grabs.

The leadership struggle dragged out for months. But in January, Householder managed to get elected with Democratic support. And in April, a member of his new leadership team introduced HB 6.

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2. Hire lobbyists

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As previously reported by cleveland.com, FirstEnergy Solutions has disclosed spending nearly $2.7 million in 2018 on lobbyists and PR firms working to convince Ohio lawmakers to support bailing out their nuclear plants.

The payments normally would be secret. But they were detailed in FES bankruptcy filings that were compiled and analyzed by The Energy and Policy Institute, an advocacy group for renewable energy.

That included about $1.2 million paid to Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, a Washington D.C. lobbying and law firm.

In bankruptcy filings, Akin Gump said it had worked to help build support for bailout bills in Ohio and Pennsylvania, where FES owns a third nuclear plant.

“Akin Gump continued to focus on building support among affected stakeholders, interested parties, and public officials, including supporting the launch of the Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance,” an Akin Gump attorney wrote in a January filing. “Akin Gump professionals provided state-level developments leading up to the mid-term elections, and finally, Akin Gump worked with key officials at FES and retained local advisors in preparation of more actively engaging Ohio and Pennsylvania officials at the start of the new legislative sessions in 2019.”

FES also paid about $541,000 to Dewey Square Group, a national public-affairs company and $61,628 to Oxley Group LLC, a Columbus lobbying firm, the bankruptcy filings show. Dewey Square helped launch the Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance, a group that popped up late last year, and Oxley Group lobbied Ohio elected officials to pass the bill.

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Chuck Crow, The Plain Dealer

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3. Make campaign contributions

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Because it operates in a strictly regulated industry, FirstEnergy long has been one of the most politically active companies in Ohio.

State and federal elections records show FirstEnergy, its political action committees and its employees have given about $1.17 million to help Ohio candidates and political parties since January 2017, according to a cleveland.com analysis. Of that, about $806,800 went to Republicans and $362,600 went to Democrats.

But the biggest individual contribution was $250,000 given in October to A Stronger Ohio, a super PAC aligned with Democratic governor candidate Richard Cordray, who ended up narrowly losing his race to now-Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican.

Other big recipients were the Ohio Republican Party (around $160,000 split among various party funds) and the Ohio Democratic Party ($38,000); Secretary of State Frank LaRose ($64,300); State Rep. Anthony DeVitis, an Akron Republican ($35,400) and Sen. Kristina Roegner, a Hudson Republican ($25,400).

DeWine’s campaign got $62,000, his official transition committee got $20,000, and Chuck Jones, FirstEnergy’s CEO, in October donated an additional $12,700 in free food and drinks to DeWine’s campaign.

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Mark Duncan, Associated Press 2005 file photo

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4. Build a coalition of supporters

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The Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance acknowledges on its website that it is "powered by FirstEnergy Solutions."

The coalition has more than 150 members. Generally, they fall into three categories.

One, politicians and other public officials from the areas near the plants — one of which is near Toledo, and the other of which is near Cleveland — which provide local communities with jobs and tax revenues.

Two, unions, generally those that represent workers who either work inside or on the plants.

And three, local businesses and suppliers to the plants.

FirstEnergy has lined up support by arguing that Davis Bessie and Perry employ Ohio workers, and that losing the plants, which produce about 14% of the state’s electricity, would force the state to acquire more energy from sources that pollute the atmosphere.

"I support any effort to provide our communities with clean air and a healthy environment," Summit County Executive Ilene Shapiro said in testimony the group shared with reporters. "These two plants are responsible for 90 percent of Ohio’s carbon-free electricity generation. We can choose to move forward with clean, reliable nuclear energy or remain in the past and become less competitive in an ever-changing economy."

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5. Line up friendly testimony

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During ongoing HB 6 committee hearings, state lawmakers have heard from dozens of people for and against the legislation.

As it turns out, at least seven people testifying in favor of the legislation — including a Sandusky County commissioner and an employee of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant — were reading from testimony prepared by the Dewey Square Group.

The Energy and Policy Institute found that metadata within the written testimony that was published to the committee website showed the documents were authored by Christopher Curry, a Dewey Square employee.

Carlo LoParo, a spokesman for the Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance, said metadata shows Ali Mock, an employee of Columbus lobbying firm Government Edge, also authored some testimony from HB 6 opponents. The opposition generally includes the oil and gas industry, consumer groups, environmentalist groups and conservative advocacy organizations.

“This doesn’t necessarily mean she wrote the testimonies,” he said. “It could mean she reformatted, converted to PDF or uploaded the testimonies. All of that changes the metadata. That’s what happened to us last week.”

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6. Buy tons of ads

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Since May 3, backers of House Bill 6 have flooded Ohio’s airwaves and social media profiles with ads, spending an amount that’s more reminiscent of an election campaign.

As of Thursday, the Ohio Clean Energy Jobs Alliance has spent $ 254,903 on Facebook ads, according to the social media website's political ad tracker tool.

These ads disclose that FirstEnergy Solutions paid for them. Social media political ads previously were not disclosed in real time, but Facebook has increased its transparency requirements for political ads after the criticism the site got for its role in spreading Russian propaganda during the 2016 U.S. election.

LoParo said his group discloses its connection to FirstEnergy Solutions not because of Facebook, but because of its desire to be transparent with members of its coalition.

“We want them to know who’s funding our organization and what we’re about,” he said.

But more than ten times as much has been spent on TV and radio ads by a pro-HB 6 group whose funding source isn’t disclosed.

Generation Now, the dark-money group that spent $1 million on helping Householder get elected as House speaker, as of Thursday had bought or reserved $4.6 million worth of pro-HB 6 radio and TV ads that have run across the state — according to FCC records compiled by an ad-tracking firm in Ohio. The ads were placed by The Strategy Group, a prominent Columbus political consulting firm that supported Householder's leadership bid.

The group also has spent between $12,000 and $60,000 promoting the ads on Facebook.

The ads encourage viewers to call their state representatives and encourage them to support the “Ohio Clean Air Program.” One ad ominously warns of “Washington lobbyists, big money and dark deals” that are “working to stop the Ohio Clean Air program” so they can create an energy monopoly for Big Oil.

Groups opposing HB6, including those funded by the oil and natural gas industry, have their own ads, and have spent around $540,000 on them.

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7. Wait for the bill to pass?

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Paul Vernon, Associated Press

State of the State Ohio

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, center, speaks between Ohio Senate president Larry Obhof, left, and Ohio House speaker Larry Householder during the Ohio State of the State address at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, Tuesday, March 5, 2019.

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There appears to be political support for HB 6 from key figures in state government — Gov. Mike DeWine has expressed support for nuclear energy as a part of the state’s energy portfolio, as has Sen. Larry Obhof, the president of the state senate.

But getting the bill through the House has been a tricky first step.

For most of its life, House Bill 6 would have swapped existing customers fees that pay for renewable energy projects for a new “clean energy” fee — most of which would go to the two nuclear plants, and the rest of which would pay for solar and wind projects.

But after weeks of amendments and negotiations with Democrats, Republicans on Wednesday dramatically changed courses.

They overhauled the "clean energy" bill by cutting out wind and solar projects and instead proposed using the new fees — beyond the $150 million plus that still will go to the nuclear plants — to subsidize two coal plants owned by most of Ohio's majority utility companies, including FirstEnergy Solutions. In doing so, Householder likely lost Democratic votes in favor of courting Republican votes.

Nick Everhart, a Republican political ad consultant in Columbus, called the seven-figure million advertising campaign from Generation Now "unprecedented."

"Rarely if ever has a public affairs campaign aimed at a vote in the state legislature seen this level of TV spending in Ohio," he said. "The stakes are high for [FirstEnergy Solutions]. They need this taxpayer funded bailout to stay afloat, so no amount of money is probably too much for them to spend on this endeavor. Whether it will actually impact the vote remains to be seen."

"If it passes the House, it worked. If not, then it might be the biggest waste of spending we’ve seen on Capitol Square in a long long time. And that is really saying something."