COLUMBUS - Xenophobia. Harassment. Arrests. Lawsuits. The fight over nuclear bailouts has become the strangest and nastiest campaign in recent Ohio history – and it hasn't even made the 2020 ballot yet.

Monday is the deadline for Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts to submit 265,774 valid signatures from at least 44 counties to block a $1 billion bailout of two nuclear plants in northern Ohio.

FirstEnergy Solutions, the bankrupt company that owns the two plants outside Cleveland and Toledo, and its allies have fought the referendum at every turn.

The bailout is part of House Bill 6, which Ohio's GOP-controlled Legislature passed and Gov. Mike DeWine signed in July. The legislation would impose a new fee on Ohioans' electric bills of 85 cents per month for residential customers starting in 2021.

Those fees would raise about $150 million a year for FirstEnergy Solutions' plants – money the company says it needs to keep the doors open. Another $20 million from those fees would pay for solar energy companies.

Unlike other states that have approved subsidies for nuclear plants, Ohio did so by cutting assistance for renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts. Those cuts mean customers will save money, Ohio lawmakers say.

But instead of debating the merits of these subsidies, dark money groups that support the bailout have spent millions on Chinese conspiracy advertisements, blockers to keep people from signing petitions and incentives to entice signature collectors to leave the state.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost even stepped in, saying he would investigate any illegal interference.

"It is truly one of a kind," Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts spokesman Gene Pierce said of the fight over nuclear energy. "It’s like we've had an entire presidential campaign jammed into 90 days.”

Street fight

The battle between pro-bailout and anti-bailout forces in Ohio has been waged near public libraries, outside Westerville's Democratic debate and on the streets of Circleville's Pumpkin Show.

Paid and unpaid signature collectors with Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts, a limited liability company formed in July that has not disclosed its backers yet, have been shouted down and even shoved by proponents of the bailout.

Generation Now, a dark money group linked to the nuclear plants' owner FirstEnergy Solutions, hired blockers from FieldWorks to monitor signature collectors and offer the opposing viewpoint. Outside a Westerville Graeter's Tuesday, blockers outnumbered a signature collector at least five-to-one.

But bailout proponents haven't stopped there. Ohioans for Energy Security, another pro-subsidies group that hasn't disclosed its donors, is circulating a petition asking lawmakers to protect the electric grid from foreign governments. That argument has been refuted by the power grid operators themselves.

The dueling petitions have confused some voters.

Those collecting signatures to block the nuclear plant subsidies say they were offered $2,500 or a plane ticket out of Ohio to stop their work on the referendum. Yost is investigating the allegations.

Legal fight

The effort to block the anti-bailout referendum has gone beyond the streets. It has reached the courtroom as well.

FirstEnergy Solutions filed a lawsuit at the Ohio Supreme Court, saying the new fee on Ohioans electric bills was a tax. Taxes cannot be challenged via referendum, the method Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts is using to block the energy law from taking effect. That case is pending.

Meanwhile, Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts has asked a federal court judge for more time to collect signatures.

The group argued that Ohio's rules delayed signature collecting. Requirements such as collecting 1,000 valid signatures and having the ballot language certified as accurate by the state attorney general ate into the group's 90-day timeline.

U.S. District Court Judge Edmund Sargus has not yet made a decision on that request.

Fact fight

"Don't give your personal information to the Chinese government,” warns an Ohioans for Energy Security advertisement aimed at blocking the anti-bailout referendum.

But signing a petition in Ohio won't send your personal information to the Chinese government. Not to mention that basic voter information, such as names, addresses and political affiliations, are already readily available on Ohio election officials' websites.

Proponents of the nuclear plant subsidies have claimed that China is going to take over Ohio's energy grid. The basis: Banks linked to foreign counties, including China, Switzerland, France and Australia, have financed Ohio's natural gas operations, a key competitor to nuclear energy.

But lending money doesn't equal control, said David Dollar, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. And the federal government can block projects if foreign investments that pose a national security risk.

Meanwhile, the anti-Chinese language has several groups in the Asian and Chinese-American community upset.

"Their campaigns made false connections between the Chinese government and the groups pushing to repeal the bill, creating xenophobia among the constituency," the Greater Cincinnati Chinese Cultural Exchange Association and 12 other organizations wrote in a letter.

"Even worse, it provokes racism against Chinese Americans and other East Asian Americans based on their race and ethnicity, suspecting their loyalty and perpetuating the belief that they are forever foreigners."

If you think this campaign can't get any nastier, just wait. If Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts collects the needed signatures, there is more than a year till the election.

Columbus bureau chief Jackie Borchardt contributed reporting.