John Kulewicz, the Democratic nominee for Ohio Attorney General, has filed a complaint with Ohio Inspector General Randall J. Meyer seeking an investigation into ties between JobsOhio, Gov. Mike DeWine's office, and Intel — accusing JobsOhio Board Chairman Josh Rubin of an apparent conflict of interest tied to the chipmaker's stalled New Albany plant. Rubin, who also serves as a lobbyist and CEO of the CJR Group, was registered to lobby JobsOhio and the governor on Intel's behalf from September 2023 until early 2026, even as he sat on the board overseeing the company's incentive package.
Kulewicz's complaint, which he later amended with additional details about Rubin's dual roles, alleges that Rubin's lobbying activity appears to contradict a pledge Rubin made to the governor to stop serving clients with matters before JobsOhio. According to Cleveland Scene, Rubin lobbied Gov. DeWine on Intel's behalf as recently as April 2026, according to his own activity and expense filings, despite that promise. As reported by the New Albany-Gahanna Beacon, disclosure records show the timeline of that dual lobbying and board service stretching well beyond when Rubin was supposed to have stepped back.
A $2 Billion Bet With No Easy Way Back
The stakes behind the complaint are substantial. Ohio awarded Intel more than $600 million for construction of its chip-making plant northeast of Columbus, and the state and JobsOhio together committed a combined incentive package exceeding $2 billion, including $691 million in infrastructure improvements, $650 million in income-tax credits, and $150 million from JobsOhio itself, per the same account from the Beacon. JobsOhio separately awarded Intel at least $27 million more directly tied to the project. Meanwhile, JobsOhio overall has disbursed more than $2 billion to businesses statewide as incentives, per Cleveland Scene.
Complicating matters further, the Intel project has been delayed by at least five years, and its future remains uncertain. Under the state's grant agreement, Ohio cannot initiate clawback procedures to recover its $600 million grant to Intel until January 1, 2029 — and state officials noted in 2025 that the state has limited enforcement power even after that date, the same reporting notes. JobsOhio did not answer questions about whether it might claw back its own project funding, and Rubin, as board chairman, may have authority over whether JobsOhio seeks repayment of some of that funding.
Rubin's Roles Raise Questions About Recusal
Kulewicz's complaint isn't the first time he has flagged Rubin's overlapping interests. He filed an initial complaint on July 2, 2026, concerning Rubin's lobbying client American Electric Power while JobsOhio was evaluating a $100 million energy initiative supporting data center power infrastructure, a conflict first reported by WOSU Public Media. Kulewicz says Rubin's dual roles raise questions about whether JobsOhio funds are being used to benefit his lobbying clients, and public JobsOhio board records apparently contained no instances of Rubin declaring a potential conflict. JobsOhio did not provide documents showing Rubin had declared one, according to the amended complaint.
JobsOhio, however, points to its internal safeguards. The governor's office and JobsOhio said the agency's ethics policy — which they describe as strong — requires board members to declare possible conflicts and requires the board to vote on any recusal. DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said Rubin's multiple roles did not amount to a conflict of interest. Paul Nick of the Ohio Ethics Commission said the commission generally lacks jurisdiction over Rubin, the JobsOhio board, and its staff — though the commission has separately advocated that JobsOhio be subject to the same ethics laws as ordinary state agencies.
The Secrecy Baked Into JobsOhio's Structure
The dispute exposes a structural quirk that has followed JobsOhio since its founding. Created in 2011 by the Ohio General Assembly and Gov. DeWine's predecessor to replace several functions of the Ohio Department of Development, JobsOhio operates as a private nonprofit and calls itself a private corporation, even though it serves what it describes as a public purpose on behalf of the people of Ohio. Under Ohio Revised Code Section 187.03, enacted through House Bill 1, JobsOhio's records, meeting minutes, and financial documents are explicitly exempted from Ohio's Public Records Law and standard state ethics code provisions, with only narrow exceptions carved out since 2011, according to LegiScan's record of the statute.
JobsOhio is funded not through legislative appropriations but through a lease of the state's spirituous liquor enterprise, extended by 15 years to 2053 in February 2025 — a lease Kulewicz's complaint characterizes as having been struck for less than the franchise's value. The governor appoints the JobsOhio board that oversees this arrangement. Kulewicz has advocated subjecting JobsOhio to open-meetings and public-records laws, and he has said JobsOhio does not need its near-complete exemption from those statutes. Legislative removal of that secrecy, he has said, would be his preferred reform.
A Campaign Issue With a GOP Rebuttal
Kulewicz is a Columbus appellate lawyer and Upper Arlington City Council member who earned the Ohio Democratic Party's endorsement in February 2026 before winning the May 5 Democratic primary, as Hoodline previously reported. He faces Republican Keith Faber, the sitting Ohio State Auditor and former President of the Ohio Senate, in the November 2026 general election for Attorney General. Faber has dismissed Kulewicz's complaints as political mudslinging, and his spokesman did not respond to questions about the matter, according to Cleveland Scene's reporting, which was originally published by the Ohio Capital Journal and republished with permission.
The controversy lands amid a broader boom in Central Ohio's tech and data-center economy, with state tax incentives for data centers reaching $1.6 billion in 2026 alongside multibillion-dollar campus commitments from major tech companies. Ohio was also ranked the No. 1 state in the nation for business by CNBC in July 2026, a distinction that gave top marks to infrastructure and site-readiness tools managed in part by JobsOhio. Whether that track record outweighs the questions Kulewicz is raising about oversight and secrecy may now become a defining question of the fall campaign.
