Thursday, March 27, 2008

Not Ready for Another Republican Governor

Republican John Kasich has announced his intention of running for Ohio governor, according to the Dispatch. I wrote about this on this blog just last month. Here is what I said in February 2008:

1. The state is in trouble because of the corrupt Republican Taft administration.

2. The Republicans who control the state legislature are more concerned with getting re-elected than helping out the citizens of Ohio.

3. After a year in office and no cooperation from Jon Husted and the rest of the self-centered Republican members of the legislature, Gov. Strickland is still working through the mess left by the Taft administration (a. mismanagement and millions of dollars lost in the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation;
b. no-bid contracts in Taft's Ohio Dept. of Transportation;
c. a mess in the election boards across the state; etc., etc., etc.)


4. Kasich works for the right wing propaganda machine, Fox News.


Here is what Kasich said as reported in the Dispatch:

Kasich said he feels compelled to run because Ohio needs a governor willing to take dramatic action to stem Ohio's job losses, low personal-income growth and flight of young people.

"Every economic factor you look at, we're in the bottom of the barrel," he said. "The only reason I'm interested in this is because I think our state is in a death spiral."

and.....

"Frankly, I believe the (state) income tax has to be phased out," Kasich said, promising to detail in the future how he would make up for a tax that provides the state with more than $9 billion a year, or 34 percent of its operating money.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland was asked for his impression of Kasich's proposals. Here is Strickland's response:

"I guess I'm just more optimistic about Ohio's future than Mr. Kasich's comments would indicate that he is," Strickland told reporters after an event this morning.....

Such a move, Strickland contended, could mean "you're going to dismantle higher education, and elementary and secondary education, and various departments of government," which, he claimed, would put Ohio in a death spiral.

"I would just be interested to know how such a loss in revenue would be possible without basically giving up on the state of Ohio," Strickland said....

I don't think that Ohioans are ready to turn the governor's office over to the Republicans. We are still hurting from the scandals the GOP left on our doorstep.