"Strickland Versus Kasich"
Published on July 1, 2009
Recently, Strickland has been embroiled in a controversy regarding the state budget. To plug a hole, the governor has proposed allowing slot machines at race tracks. A secondary strategy has been employed with the governor proposing massive cuts to the state’s libraries which has been met with vocal protest across Ohio. These tactics are ploys to force the legislature to raise taxes in order to fill the gap which the governor would “reluctantly” sign off on but is really his plan all along. His campaign promise not to raise taxes would remain in spirit only, but he could then say that the budget battle was won.
The Republican challenger, John Kasich, has his own problems. He has been dealing with the assertion that he does not support the Second Amendment since voting for the assault weapons ban in 1994. In a recent letter written by State Representative Ron Maag, he mentioned that Kasich had admitted that the vote for the ban was a mistake in 2005 on Bill O’Rielly’s show. Maag contends that Kasich is a friend on whom gun owners can depend.
Meanwhile, the other Republican candidate, Kevin Coughlin, has demonstrated a will to stay in the race. He sent out a letter asking GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine to keep the Ohio Republican Party establishment out of the race. But he has also angered many would be supporters by the tone of recent communications. In the span of a week, the Coughlin campaign sent out two hits on Kasich that were rather nasty. The first was on the Second Amendment issue previously mentioned, but the second one was on the lack of a response by Kasich to the slot machine proposal put forth by the governor. It has been suggested that the slots message was sent while Coughlin was attending the funeral of State Senator Schuler.
In light of Strickland’s budget battle strategy, Kasich’s refusal to bite on the slot machine proposal and the library cuts is probably a good thing as Senate Republicans who opposed both measures are being made to look as if they are unwilling to get the budget deal done. Strickland will be able to say that he tried to balance the budget, but Seante Republicans stood in the way while failing to provide a solution that would involve cutting popular programs or raising taxes.
All of this news comes at a time when the Democrat-leaning Public Policy Poll survey shows that the race between Strickland and Kasich is within the error of margin. The situation for Strickland is worse than this poll suggests since it oversampled women and Democrats, but the approval numbers indicate that the governor is losing support across virtually all demographics. So long as the economic situation in Ohio continues to deteriorate it is expected that the governor will continue to receive the brunt of the punishment unless he can find a scapegoat in the Republican party.