Cleveland Plain Dealer...
Kasich goes looking for extra trouble: Brent Larkin
By Brent Larkin
Saturday, August 06, 2011 

Columbus -- This should be the best of times for Ohio Republicans. 

In the wake of last year’s election sweep, they own every statewide office. That same election gave them control of the Ohio House. They’ve run the Ohio Senate for more than 26 years and look to be in charge for at least a couple more decades. And they’ve had numerical -- though not always philosophical -- control of the Ohio Supreme Court since 1987. 

So the appearance is unmistakable: Republican unity has resulted in Republican victories. 

But things are not always as they seem. Beneath this veneer of harmony, there exists today within the Ohio Republican Party a level of discord and bad blood that is now oozing into the public’s view. 

And just a little more than three months before an election that will dramatically impact his governorship, John Kasich has exacerbated the problem merely by confirming it exists. 

The governor’s petty decision to no-show the Ohio Republican Party’s annual dinner was a public acknowledgement of what has been known around the Statehouse for months. Kasich wants Kevin DeWine out as party chairman so he can replace him with one of his pals, probably Franklin County GOP Chairman Doug Preisse. 

In fact, soon after last year’s election, Kasich suggested to DeWine that he resign. DeWine refused. 

Kasich is hardly the first new governor who has wanted to install his own person as party chairman. Neither is he the first who lacks the votes among the party’s high-level rank and file to wage a successful fight to oust the chairman. 

Most governors get over it and learn to live with the incumbent. Not this one. 

So Kasich concocted an excuse about a scheduling conflict and blew off 600 loyal Republicans who traveled to Cleveland (the event is usually held in Columbus) July 22 for the most important party gathering of the year. Also absent was Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who conveniently picked that weekend to be on vacation with her family, and Kasich’s most reliable ally in legislative leadership, House Speaker Bill Batchelder. 

Kasich’s no-show came at a time when Republicans need a unified front as they try to fight off a Democratic and labor-led initiative to repeal Senate Bill 5, the Republican-engineered law that dramatically curtails the rights and bargaining power of public-sector unions. 

The repeal effort will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot as State Issue 2. Both public and private polls show a sizable majority in favor of repeal. 

But the lead isn’t yet insurmountable. Supporters of SB 5 have a message that will close the gap. Nevertheless, some astute Republicans here privately concede that their odds of prevailing are diminishing. In fact, some Kasich loyalists already are downplaying how a defeat on Issue 2 would impact the governor’s political standing -- a telltale sign that they fear the worst. 

Kasich’s no-show in Cleveland also came one day after a New York Times listing of gubernatorial approval ratings showed him with the second-lowest. Only Florida’s Rick Scott had worse numbers. 

Kasich is smart and, at times, engaging. More important, he has more guts than any Ohio governor in at least 60 years. And he’s willing to move decisively and boldly to improve Ohio’s dismal economy. That’s why voters owe him lots more time before jumping to conclusions about his record. 

But Kasich sometimes can’t get out of his own way. He talks too much, is far too unsympathetic to the plight of local governments, whose budgets he just gutted, and is sometimes too quick to see rivals where they don’t exist. 

A textbook example: Of all the statewide officials, Secretary of State Jon Husted is without question the most talented. There was a time when Husted’s relationship with Kasich was just fine -- until some of the governor’s friends convinced him of the preposterous notion that Husted’s friendship with Kevin DeWine qualifies him as the governor’s enemy. 

Kasich has plenty of enemies in organized labor and the Democratic Party. Picking a fight with someone who means him no harm is bewildering. Meanwhile, Kasich’s low approval ratings -- which were inevitable given the budget cuts needed to deal with the mess he inherited -- already have prompted speculation about Democrats who might challenge him in 2014. The two names that make the most sense are Youngstown-area Congressman Tim Ryan and former Attorney General Richard Cordray. The name that makes no sense is Ted Strickland, who in three years will be 74 years old. 

With Democrats already plotting Kasich’s demise, and with a crucial election looming on collective bargaining, it fails the common-sense test for Kasich to be sowing seeds of ill will within his own party. 

Lots of people who wish the governor well would be more than happy to tell him that. 

If only he’d listen. 

Read it at the Cleveland Plain Dealer