Columbus Dispatch...
‘Scheduling conflict’ keeps Kasich away
By Joe Vardon and Joe Hallett
7/17/11 

The Ohio Republican Party’s biggest event of the year will be minus the state party’s most recognizable star. 

When hundreds of GOP donors and politicians gather in Cleveland for the state party’s annual dinner on Friday, Gov. John Kasich won’t be there to toast his legislative triumphs or rev up the troops for a fall defense of Senate Bill 5. 

Instead, Kasich has an “economic development event” scheduled for early Friday in southwestern Ohio and “two other meetings” set for later in the day, according to his staff. 

What is officially being labeled by the Kasich administration and party leadership as a scheduling conflict that is keeping Kasich away from the state party’s yearly shindig is more the result of a schism between the governor and his own party, according to several state Republicans with knowledge of the relationship between Kasich and the Ohio GOP, especially party chairman Kevin DeWine. 

“Is it a great personal relationship (between the governor and chairman)? No, it’s not a great relationship,” said a party activist, who asked not to be named because of potential political ramifications. 

When asked to discuss the state party dinner or his relationship with DeWine and Ohio Republicans last week, Kasich said, “This issue just doesn’t merit my attention right now.” 

During his first seven months in office, Kasich has made it a practice of traveling the state by plane and car, often covering hundreds of miles in a single day. On June 15, to announce terms of his deal with casino developer Rock Ohio Caesars for gambling money to the state, he appeared at news conferences within a few hours of each other in Cleveland and Cincinnati. 

So getting to Cleveland on Friday night after conducting business near Cincinnati is something that logistically Kasich has pulled off before. 

New governors automatically become titular heads of their parties, and many want actual control over them without the responsibility for day-to-day operations. Kasich was no different. After winning office in November, Kasich summoned DeWine to his campaign office and told him he wanted to name his own chairman. 

Sources close to DeWine said Kasich threatened to withhold his support for the party if DeWine declined to make way for his unnamed replacement - a story sources close to Kasich didn’t rebut last week when asked. 

Coming off of the party’s wildly successful 2010 statewide election, DeWine refused to quit, and on Jan. 9, he was unanimously re-elected to a new two-year term by the state GOP central committee. 

Asked whether a festering rift was behind Kasich’s decision not to attend the Cleveland dinner, DeWine responded with a statement sent by email. 

“The state dinner is a recognition of our party’s victories last cycle, as well as the kick start to the campaign to defeat Barack Obama,” he said. “The Ohio GOP wouldn’t have as much to celebrate or look forward to if John Kasich wasn’t involved. The fact that he’s not available doesn’t take away from his contribution to the team.” 

Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor will be out of the state traveling with family on Friday and will not attend the dinner either, according to her staff. 

Secretary of State Jon Husted, Treasurer Josh Mandel and Senate President Tom Niehaus are among the high-profile Republicans scheduled to attend, and Husted and Mandel are both slated to speak. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal will be the featured speaker and is expected to focus on next year’s presidential election. 

“John Kasich is a dynamic, motivational spokesperson for Republicans in this state,” Husted said. “People would love to hear him speak any time they can, but the governor is also a busy guy. ... I don’t begrudge him for having a scheduling conflict.” 

Even though Republicans have total control of Capitol Square - all five statewide executive offices, both houses of the General Assembly, and the Supreme Court - the partisan brethren don’t always play well together. In Ohio’s GOP realm, separate power bases have emerged and they don’t trust each other, according to multiple Republican sources who asked not to be identified to avoid retribution. 

And they say Kasich and Husted are on opposite sides. 

“There are two factions of the party,” said one leading party activist. “There is the Husted-DeWine wing and there is the Kasich-(House Speaker William G.) Batchelder wing, and they don’t get along.” 

Husted, a close friend of DeWine’s, recently riled some Republicans by ruling out the legal possibility of splitting a Nov. 8 referendum on Senate Bill 5, the new law restricting collective bargaining rights, into separate ballot issues. The secretary of state also upset some House Republicans by publicly opposing their attempts to require voters to produce photo IDs at polling places. 

Husted laughed when asked to respond to suggestions that he and Kasich were leaders of rival Republican factions. 

“I want John Kasich to be successful, and it’s in all of our best interests that he is,” Husted said. “Whether somebody is your best buddy in the world or not, my job is to help Ohio be successful.” 

Splits among party leaders enjoying an abundance of power are not uncommon. In the 1960s and ‘70s, GOP Gov. James A. Rhodes installed two successive hand-picked state party chairmen, and the GOP quickly withered. In 1995, Gov. George V. Voinovich tried to oust state GOP Chairman Robert T. Bennett, who became arguably the most successful party leader in state history. 

Kasich’s staff and some party officials say the governor has regularly been involved in conference calls with central committee members, county chairmen and other GOP leaders to discuss support for his budget and Senate Bill 5, and he has been receptive to recommendations from county chairmen on judicial and other appointments. 

But when House and Senate Republicans looked for his support for House Bill 231 last week - which would’ve allowed entities to pump millions of gallons of water per day from Lake Erie without a permit - Kasich rebuffed them and vetoed the bill. 

“Kasich is his own man, he always has been,” a party insider said. 

Read it at the Columbus Dispatch