David C. Dewitt

FirstEnergy was the company behind the largest political bailout and bribery scandal in Ohio history. This week, Sludge reported that Trump’s top campaign money bundler advised FirstEnergy on its contributions to a dark money group that pleaded guilty to racketeering charges in that scandal.

Like J.D. Vance, I am also 39 years old; I also grew up in a struggling “rust belt” city in Ohio; I have also lost countless people close to me to the scourge of drug addiction; and I have also spent a lot of time in Appalachia. I have some concerns.

In the “Ohio’s Best Journalism Contest” from the Society of Professional Journalists, the Ohio Capital Journal won seven awards last week, including three first place finishes and four in second place. The contest covered stories and editorial from 2023.

No matter how I slice it on the role of Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine in the biggest public corruption scandal in Ohio history, I’m forced to conclude he is either knee-deep in the corruption, or he is so wildly incompetent he let it all happen right under his nose without suspecting a thing.

For the sake of all the national eyes turning this week toward The Great Ohio Big Top Circus of Dysfunctional State Government, I figured I’d throw together a timeline to try to give folks an overview of all that’s been happening in Ohio to bring us to this point:

Ohio Statehouse Republicans stand determined to make a lurid example of themselves on just how toxic and destructive gerrymandering is. To paraphrase Cicero, how long, O' gerrymandered Ohio lawmakers, is that madness of yours still to mock us?

In a rare example of Ohio government functioning representationally, legal adult-use marijuana is coming soon to store shelves, and reasonable bipartisanship has prevailed over the machinations of gerrymandered extremists, writes Editor David DeWitt.

Next to gerrymandering, the biggest driver of dangerous and destructive political misrepresentation in Ohio is the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United ruling allowing unbridled dark money pay-to-play corruption, which has now led to the biggest political bribery scandal in state history.

Ohio’s true state of the state is relentless misrepresentation, extremism, and corruption. Meanwhile, Ohio ranks in the bottom half of states on education, economy, environment, infrastructure, and health care, writes Editor David DeWitt.

Reporting For The People