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For Immediate Release:
Friday, July 8, 2022

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, Ohio Democrats expanded a lawsuit against Mike DeWine and his office to strengthen ongoing efforts to gain answers into what DeWine and his cronies knew and when about the largest public corruption scandal in state history. Thursday, Ohio Democratic Party Chairwoman Elizabeth Walters announced a preliminary injunction in the party’s ongoing lawsuit against DeWine to assure key public records are not destroyed and are ultimately shared with Ohio voters.

Since May, none of the records requests filed by ODP have been fulfilled despite empty claims from the DeWine team about the governor’s commitment to “transparency and accountability.” Ohioans should know Democrats will not stop fighting to make sure Ohioans get the answers they deserve.

“Nothing we’re asking for is complicated: emails and texts between Mike DeWine, Jon Husted and their staffs about HB 6, correspondence between the administration and the organizations and individuals connected to the scandal and a full, unredacted calendar from Mike DeWine accounting for how he was spending his taxpayer-funded time. These are questions we started asking in October, answers Ohio voters deserve,” said Chair Walters.

Here’s what Ohioans are reading about the new legal action today:

Dayton Daily News: Democrats Make DeWine Keep All HB 6 Info In FirstEnergy Scandal  

Jim Gaines

“Ohio Democrats are seeking to forestall any destruction of Gov. Mike DeWine’s records related to the FirstEnergy bribery scandal, asking for a court injunction against disposing of materials they’ve requested.

“‘These are questions we started asking in October, answers Ohio voters deserve,’ Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters said Thursday. ‘But Mike DeWine and his lackeys apparently think that they don’t need to do their job or be held accountable – that they’re above the law. We’re here to make sure they know they aren’t.’

“Democrats maintain everything they’ve requested should be made available and is of public interest. They specifically requested all communications between DeWine, Husted, 13 current or former senior staff members and Sam Randazzo, former chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, regarding FirstEnergy and numerous related organizations.

“On May 5, the Ohio Democratic Party filed a civil suit in Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, seeking an unredacted version of DeWine’s calendar and a detailed, 30-item list of related communications. That drew “nothing but crickets” from the administration, Walters said.

“She accused DeWine of stalling to “run out the clock,” potentially until the legal requirement to preserve those records expires.

“Thus the party filed its latest request, for an injunction to prevent destruction of the information sought.

“Nan Whaley, former Dayton mayor and now Democratic nominee for governor, has assailed DeWine’s connections to the scandal, alleging FirstEnergy spent “millions” to aid his election.”

…

WTVG-TV: Ohio Democrats Seek Records From DeWine Related To HB6 Bribery Scheme 

Josh Croup

“[Democrats] want this judge to force the governor to preserve any and all documents that might be linked to that House Bill 6 scandal. 

“Democrats have already sued to obtain unredacted calendars from the governor, along with other documents they say could connect him to that scandal.” 

…

Since October, Ohio Democrats have been working on getting answers to who knew what and when about the FirstEnergy scandal – which Ohioans continue to pay $287,000 every single day for – but have been stonewalled at every turn by the DeWine administration, leaving public records requests unanswered. The lack of answers from DeWine leads to even more questions about what DeWine is hiding, especially as the scandal inches closer and closer to DeWine and his inner circle.

• Find the preliminary injunction HERE. 
• Find the submitted public records requests HERE.
• Find the records Ohio Democrats have successfully obtained from the DeWine administration HERE. 

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For Immediate Release:
Friday, July 8, 2022

“The independence of the auditor’s office to dig into the numbers is the only way taxpayers and contributors to the pension fund can know they’re not being shafted.”

Columbus, OH — In case you missed it, the Toledo Blade Editorial Board earlier this week called on Auditor Keith Faber to finally do his job and oversee a state investigation of Ohio’s state pension funds, including an investment that’s lost more than $500 million for Ohio teachers and other retirees.

“Ohio law gives the state auditor the power to compel documents and witnesses tied to any public funds…So far, the auditor doesn’t want any part of it,” writes the Toledo Blade Editorial Board.

At a time when far too many teachers in Ohio are working longer, paying more while getting less to make ends meet, the failure to accordingly oversee their investment portfolio in the state’s pension funds is wrong.

Read more from Toledo Blade HERE and below:

• It’s time for an independent examination of the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio and the state’s other public-employee pension funds.
• The fees and expenses charged by professionals paid by the funds require vetting. That examination must include a determination of the values of investment funds and the direct investments made on behalf of the pension funds.
• Why? The answer is Panda Power. That investment lost $525 million. A big zero remained from the initial investment. The right person to oversee that investigation is the state auditor. The independence of the auditor’s office to dig into the numbers is the only way taxpayers and contributors to the pension fund can know they’re not being shafted.
• For their part, STRS is moving fast to implement the key recommendation in a recent fiduciary audit. The near $100 billion retirement fund is seeking outside professional aid to validate fees, expenses, and profit shares on 430 investment funds and 50 direct investments. That’s a start. More, though, remains to be done.
• Together, the five Ohio pensions have about 20 percent of their $266 billion portfolio in alternative investments where returns on those investments are in the hands of outside fund managers. The pension fund-investment staffs picking the outside funds have a financial interest in the highest possible valuations.
• They receive performance bonuses based on the results. Those bonuses typically outpace their salaries.
• It’s a conflict of interest when consultants paid by the funds provide performance reports on investments. Those reports often paint a rosy picture of the reality. The S&P 500 just turned in the worst first half performance since 1970. With market indexes down nearly 12 percent for the June 30 fiscal year, the value of much less liquid alternative investments are subject to big losses. That’s why it’s essential to get the true value of the investments right.
• Ohio law gives the state auditor the power to compel documents and witnesses tied to any public funds. An outside vendor working with the auditor has more authority to acquire investment data and far more credibility than individuals paid by the funds. So far, the auditor doesn’t want any part of it.
• Ohio law gives the auditor sole authority to set up the “standards, guidelines, and procedures,” used for the financial examination. The expense is paid by the audited agency. STRS is planning to pay for private investment-expense verification. The rest of the pension plans must do the same. The best possible way to oversee those checks is for the auditor to hire and oversee independent vendors to examine the fees and investment returns charged to Ohio’s pension plans.

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For Immediate Release:
Thursday, July 7, 2022

Columbus, OH — Today, Ohio Democratic Party Chair Elizabeth Walters announced the party is requesting a preliminary injunction in its ongoing lawsuit with Mike DeWine to make sure key records connected to the FirstEnergy bribery scandal are not destroyed.

• Find the preliminary injunction HERE. 
• Find the submitted public records requests HERE.
• Find the records Ohio Democrats have successfully obtained from the DeWine administration HERE. 

“These are questions we started asking in October, answers Ohio voters deserve. But Mike DeWine and his lackeys apparently think that they don’t need to do their job or be held accountable – that they’re above the law. We’re here to make sure they know they aren’t,” said Walters.  

In early May, Democrats sued Mike DeWine over his refusal to turn over records connected to the largest public corruption scandal in state history and resubmitted public records requests to get to the bottom of what DeWine knew and when.

To date, none of those records requests have been fulfilled despite empty claims from the DeWine team about the governor’s commitment to “transparency and accountability.” Now, Democrats are taking further legal action to make sure key records connected to the scandal are not destroyed by DeWine and Ohioans can get the answers they deserve.

Since October, Ohio Democrats have been working on getting answers to who knew what and when about the FirstEnergy scandal – which Ohioans continue to pay $287,000 every single day for – but have been stonewalled at every turn by the DeWine administration, leaving public records requests unanswered. The lack of answers from DeWine leads to even more questions about what DeWine is hiding, especially as the scandal inches closer and closer to DeWine and his inner circle.

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For Immediate Release:
July 7, 2022

Columbus, OH – A newly uncovered interview first reported by Vice reveals that JD Vance said, “There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery… it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society.”

The overturning of Roe v. Wade and the implementation of Ohio’s six-week abortion ban – which recently forced a 10-year-old girl to travel out of state to get an abortion after being raped – put Vance’s extreme anti-abortion comments into even sharper focus. In addition to comparing abortion to chattel slavery, Vance has said “two wrongs don’t make a right” when explaining why he wants to force survivors of rape and incest to give birth and called rape “inconvenient.”

“J.D. Vance is dangerous and belongs nowhere near the U.S. Senate,” said Michael Beyer, a spokesperson for the Ohio Democratic Party.

Vice: JD Vance Compared Abortion to Slavery
Cameron Joseph
July 7, 2022

• JD Vance compared abortion to slavery in an interview last fall, drawing a controversial parallel between America’s original sin and a procedure that until recently was a constitutional right.
• “There’s something comparable between abortion and slavery, and that while the people who obviously suffer the most are those subjected to it, I think it has this morally distorting effect on the entire society,” Vance, the GOP nominee for an open Ohio Senate seat, said in an interview with the Catholic Current last October.
• Vance then referenced Abraham Lincoln’s quote “I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master,” before arguing that because of abortion, many Americans have “begun to see children as inconveniences to be discarded, instead of blessings to cherish.”
• “I really think abortion has really done something very socially destructive to us as people in how we see the most vulnerable and the most dependent among us,” Vance continued. “I think that’s one of the under-appreciated facts about abortion. It’s really distorted our entire society.”
• The Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn a half-century of precedent and allow states to back abortion has significantly raised the stakes on the issue in both state and federal elections—especially since some congressional Republicans already working on legislation to ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy at the national level.
• Vance’s own state now has a six-week abortion ban in place, with no exceptions for rape and incest. That law reportedly recently blocked a ten-year-old girl who’d been raped from getting an abortion; she had to travel to another state to obtain one.
• Vance seems to oppose such exceptions in abortion bans. When asked last fall about including exceptions in cases of rape and incest in abortion bans, he replied that “two wrong[s] don’t make a right.”
• “It’s not whether a woman should be forced to bring a child to term, it’s whether a child should be allowed to live, even though the circumstances of that child’s birth are somehow inconvenient or a problem to the society,” Vance said.
• Vance’s campaign did not respond to questions from VICE News about his abortion comments.

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For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Columbus, OH — After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled to overturn Roe v. Wade, Republican politicians like Mike DeWine and Dave Yost wasted no time in working to rip away reproductive rights from millions of Ohio women. And with Mike DeWine promising to go “as far as we can” to strip away abortion rights, Ohioans can expect an onslaught of anti-choice attacks in the coming weeks and months.

With so much on the line, one of the few checks on extreme anti-choice Republicans is the Ohio Supreme Court. Ohioans expect their Supreme Court justices to rule fairly and impartially, upholding the rule of law. When it comes to a woman’s right to choose, however, the conservative justices on the Supreme Court have a long record of playing politics and doing the bidding of their political donors.

With so much at stake this November, reproductive rights are on the ballot, especially in the Supreme Court races.

Read more below:

Justices Kennedy, DeWine and Fischer All Voted to Close Toledo’s Only Remaining Abortion Clinic: 

• Capital Care Network Of Toledo v. Department of Health – By a 5-2 split, the Court upheld the state’s decision to close Toledo’s only abortion clinic.
• In its ruling, the Court overturned a lower court ruling in the case, stating the Department of Health could revoke Capital Care’s facility license.

Sharon Kennedy Has Faced Multiple Ethics Complaints Over Her Conflicts of Interest in Abortion Cases: 

• March 2017: Kennedy spoke at an anti-choice fundraiser in Toledo. The speech came just two days after the court agreed to hear the Capital Care Network case.
• July 2017: Kennedy faced two ethics complaints related to her fundraising appearance, citing the conflict created by Kennedy supporting an anti-choice organization while ruling on the future of an abortion clinic in Toledo. Kennedy refused to recuse herself from the case.
• 2020-2022: Since then, Kennedy has received at least $700 in campaign contributions from anti-choice organizations

Pat DeWine Shares His Dad’s Anti-Choice Record: 

• January 2004: As a Cincinnati City Councilman, DeWine voted for a motion to insist future healthcare contracts exclude abortion coverage for city workers. The motion was ultimately rejected.
• October 2012: DeWine received a campaign donation from Cincinnati Right to Life PAC

Pat Fischer has a long history of taking campaign cash from anti-choice groups. 

• October 2012: Fischer received a campaign donation from Cincinnati Right to Life PAC
• March 2022: Fischer endorsed by Ohio Right to Life PAC

“In races up and down the ballot, reproductive rights and abortion access are on the line this November. Justices Kennedy, DeWine and Fischer have shown Ohioans that they will eagerly rubber stamp efforts by extreme politicians to rip away our rights instead of doing their jobs and upholding the law fairly and impartially,” said Ohio Democratic Party spokesperson Matt Keyes.

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