Kasich’s Fiscal Responsibility Is Really Political Theater

John Kasich has made the decision to live in his own residence near Westerville and forgo the state-owned Governor’s Mansion in Bexley.  Will this result in budget savings to the taxpayers?  The answer, more than likely is no.  This is more of an exercise in grandstanding and political theater rather than fiscal discipline.  It is very telling that the cost of maintaining security at Mr. Kasich’s 4,400 square feet house on ten acres of land is currently being witheld from the public.  It is also worth noting that the new Governor will still be using the mansion in Bexley for ceremonial purposes.  This all begs the question as to how much more this potential boondoggle will cost Ohio taxpayers.

On the national level, the GOP has historically touted their virtues of fiscal discipline, yet administrations from Reagan to George H.W. Bush to George W. Bush were known for massive deficits and debt.  In the middle of these Republican Presidents was that “wild-eyed lefty” Bill Clinton who eliminated the deficit, ran surpluses and actually paid down debt.

When it comes to fiscal responsibility, Republicans are long on rhetoric but very short on results.  John Kasich is actually talking about cutting taxes during tough fiscal times.  This is as realistic as his scheme to have security details in Westerville and Bexley residences actually saving money.  It should only be a matter of time before Ohioans catch on to this shell game.

Fertilizing Grassroots

Fertilizing those Grassroots

Last week at a meeting with a fellow county Democrat, the late and great Senator Paul Wellstone’s name came up. Senator Wellstone was the quintessential Northern woods progressive and they honestly don’t make them like him much more.  I had the honor and privilege of my first paying job out of college an off-shoot of the Wellstone Project and ten years later is still the best job I ever had.  Literal grassroots, door-to-door, vote-by-vote getting for a targeted state representative race in Northwestern Wisconsin. I learned more on that campaign in the short 6 months I was housed in my candidates basement complete with gun racks, antler trophies, and turkey shoot or tractor pull invitations (I’m a native Long Islander, it was a stretch as far as experiences go) than I ever could in college or graduate school. We lost by only 78 votes out of 80,000 registered voters and to this day I still remember each of those precincts, what was important to those folks, and if the Packers didn’t play the Vikings on Monday Night Football the night before Election Day we might’ve had them! 

Too many candidates, campaigns, and political operatives try to pay lip service, rather than actual service, to true grassroots politics.  Grassroots activism is at its core a LOCAL movement. It’s the epitome of “Think Globally, Act Locally.”  A small group of determined local citizens making an impact on national and then global policy, events, and movements.  Remembering our local campaigns and candidates make our statewide and eventually our national candidates stronger, lending more support.  Now that I call central Ohio home, I can clearly see how the Franklin County Democratic party’s own grassroots initiatives would make Senator Wellstone proud.  The Precinct and Ward Captain trainings, growing a Central Committee that is truly representative of every single precinct or neighborhood in Franklin County, calling for diversity in our Townships, Cities, and State Administrations, outreach for authors for this very blog – that’s grassroots!

But even those of us who embrace grassroots politics maybe took a step too far back this last election cycle. We need to remember our local issues and use them to educate our State and National leaders – regardless of their party. Become INFORMED of legislation is being introduced and voted on, and EDUCATE your neighbors about how it will affect you on YOUR block. In YOUR neighborhood. Keep Kasich’s feet the fire – what will his non-education plan mean for YOUR school district and YOUR property values? What did the Race for the Top funds mean for YOUR schools? When you have those answers, knock on your neighbors’ doors and say, “Hi, I live next door and thought you might want to know what’s going on downtown and how it affects us.” If we don’t, we stay home, and just make snide comments on message boards, it won’t get done. We’ll have more of the same of this past election year. If you took that hour each week you take to respond to the crackpots on blogs, message boards, or Topix discussion boards, you’d be able to contact 30-50 voters and make a real difference in our neighborhoods. I’m guilty enough of it myself and my New Year’s Resolution is to water my own lawn.

A well manicured lawn can always rid the one or two weeds that decide to poke through the cracks in the cement. But it takes more than one blade to drown out that miserable sight, and I’ve got my bucket of fertilizer. Do you?

Grove City Scandal

The mushrooming tax scandal in Grove City provides a textbook example of the problems associated with one-party rule. Republicans have controlled Grove City’s government for decades.
And what’s the result: Hundreds of thousands of dollars owed to the IRS and state in unpaid city employee taxes.
According to articles in The Columbus Dispatch and Grove City Record, the problem has been occurring continuously for at least a decade, under the Republican administrations of Cheryl Grossman and Ike Stage. Grossman is now a member of the Ohio House.
Not surprising, everyone at City Hall is claiming ignorance. But these see-no-evil claims ring hollow. After all, the IRS sent the city repeated delinquency notices in recent years. Yet these notices went unheeded.
Also, the state auditor issued stinging rebukes of the city’s lack of financial oversight in audits in 2005 and 2006. Yet these warnings apparently also went unheeded.
Grove City officials’ malfeasance will cost taxpayers there hundreds of thousands of dollars – not only in unpaid taxes but also in interest and penalties.
It’s time to throw the bums out.

Pesky Rules

At a recent Press conference, Governor-Elect John Kasich was asked if his pick of Inspector General Charles to head the Ohio Public Safety Agency was a conflict of interest due to the latter’s wife and son being state police officers.  In response, Mr. Kasich said the following:

 We have so many stupid rules and regulations that prevent us from getting the best people to come in here. And I blame it on all of you, all this transparency and conflicts and all this other stuff. I want to just tell you, it is a problem to get quality people to come to work in the government.

Transparency and conflict-of-interest regulations are put in place to provide good government.  Surely if Governor Strickland or President Obama had made such a pick, Fox News analyst John Kasich would have cried foul.  Inspector General Charles is more than likely a good and well-qualified public servant.  However, ethics rules should be applied to he and Mr. Kasich as they are for everyone else.  There just seems to be different definitions and standards Republicans apply when they are in power as opposed to when they are not.  Herejust  are a few: conflict of interest, deficits, debt, earmarks and “government-run health care (in the latter case, “Obamacare” and it’s $1 billion price tag as opposed to Bush’s Medicare PArt D with its $60 billion projected cost). 

Conflict-of-interest rules prevent corruption and cronyism.  Surely this was not what Mr. Kasich was referring to as “trying a different way” on the campaign trail”.  Mr. Kasich and the GOP need to learn that rules apply to them as well, and double standards need to go.

College Democrats of Ohio Announce Kasich Accountability Project

The College Democrats of Ohio announced this week their Kasich Accountability Project, a website focusing the Governor-elects commitment to screwing students-both K-12 and college-while also highlighting his accomplishments so far like Ohio losing its 3-C rail money and the very real possibility that we will lose our Race To The Top funding. Below is their press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

College Democrats Blast Kasich in New Website

Columbus, Ohio – December 14th 2010 – The College Democrats of Ohio (CDO) has hit back hard against Gov-Elect John Kasich with their new website The Kasich Accountability Project [www.TheKasichProject.com].

The project is aimed at raising awareness about issues that effect students, and helping those students speak out for the future of the State of Ohio. “Ohioans deserve to know how Kasich’s policies hurt students,” said CDO vice president Matt Caffrey.

The site launched today by highlighting the $400 million in federal funds for high speed rail that Gov-Elect Kasich has already lost, costing Ohio 16,000 jobs. The site also focuses on the expected 20% cuts to higher education and the $400 million in Race to the Top funds that will almost certainly be withdrawn as well, leading to deep cuts to K-12 education.

“College Democrats are leading the way in Ohio to keep voters informed of Kasich’s actions,” said CDO President Bobby Duncan. “We will continue to organize to ensure any policy that hurts students does not go unnoticed.”

The site is already going viral on Facebook and Twitter, with dozens of college students across Ohio sharing the site with their friends. “The reception has been better than we could have hoped for” said Caffrey.

“There are almost five hundred thousand public university students in the University System of Ohio,” said Duncan, “All of those students are at risk of being ignored and unrepresented by the Kasich administration.”

This launch comes after CDO’s active role in the 2010 election. The student-run group registered close to 10,000 students and talked with over 15,000 voters in the final week of the election, contributing to Governor Strickland’s 15 point margin among 18-24 year olds [1].

College Democrats of Ohio is a statewide federation of College Democrats chapters and the student wing of the Ohio Democratic Party.

Chaos at the Statehouse

John Kasich’s bizarre performance at his latest news conference has some Statehouse regulars wondering if he’s ready for prime time.

Our Republican governor-elect’s outburst came during a news conference announcing that Inspector General Tom Charles will become Ohio’s next Public Safety director. As a member of the Kasich’s cabinet, Charles will – among other things – oversee operations of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

Reporters asked an obvious question: Since Charles’ wife and son work for the patrol, will his appointment as their boss constitute a conflict of interest?
Kasich interrupted Charles with the following rant, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer:

“I find myself tripping over the ant hills on the way to the pyramids. We have so many stupid rules and regulations that prevent us from getting the best people to come in here. You just can’t believe it. And I blame it on all of you (news media). All the transparency and conflicts and other stuff. I want to just tell you, it is a problem to get quality people to come and work in the government.

“The fact that he has relatives that work in the patrol, I think the man will do a good job. It’s just sort of silly to have to explain all that away. His reputation is great, I stand behind him and all this business about this conflict, that conflict – let me tell you something, we’re hurting our kids.”

Maybe we’re being a little presumptuous, but did our governor-elect just call Ohio’s ethics and conflict-of-interest laws “stupid?’’

These laws were enacted decades ago with strong bipartisan support from Democrats and Republicans in the wake of the Watergate scandals. They are not “stupid.’’ They have served Ohioans well, snagging corrupt officials – including former Gov. Bob Taft – from both parties.
Will Charles’ relatives pose a conflict for him. We don’t know. But a quick check with the Ohio Ethics Commission, which has handed up several rulings on this subject, would answer the question.

We guess Kasich was too busy lambasting the news media to make a call to the Ethics Commission.
Another issue arose during the Kasich-Charles news conference.

Kasich wrongly contended the Highway Patrol had been “infiltrated by politics’’ under Gov. Ted Strickland. Two safety directors have been ousted over the past 16 months.
But Ohio Demcratic Chairman Chris Redfern correctly pointed out that Kasich – not Ted Strickland – was introducing politics into the Public Safety Department and the Highway Patrol.

Redfern noted that Charles, as inspector general, launched both of the controversial investigations. Especially egregious were Charles’ unproven allegations that former Public Safety Director Cathy Collins-Taylor lied to investigators.

Now, Charles is being rewarded for attempting to embarrass Strickland, Redfern told the Plain Dealer.
“These developments are a further demonstration of what we already knew: the so-called ‘Troopergate’ investigation was a politically motivated witch hunt seeking to derail Gov. Strickland’s re-election,” Redfern said.

Folks, welcome to the brave new world of Kasichland.

CORDRAY TO DC

The Obama administration hit a home run by naming Richard Cordray as the chief enforcer at the new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As a county and statewide official, Cordray has repeatedly proven his commitment to consumers.

It’s also good news that he probably will run for governor in four years. By then, Ohioans will be sick and tired of Kasich, I predict.