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GOP candidate says Strickland won’t be much competition
NILES — John Kasich, the leading Republican candidate for governor, said he’s not at all concerned with the incumbent, Democrat Ted Strickland, whom he’s likely to face in the November 2010 election.
“There isn’t much to talk about there. I’m not worried about him. He’s been no leader, no leadership,” Kasich said Friday when asked about Strickland by The Vindicator.
Kasich made the statement after speaking at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber’s government- affairs-council breakfast at Ciminero’s Banquet Center in Niles.
“I don’t think I even mentioned the guy, did I?” Kasich said about his speech after the event.
When asked about Strickland later, Kasich said, “I hold him responsible for the fact that he’s done nothing to improve the economic situation in this state, nothing.”
Kasich said Strickland hasn’t done anything to prepare Ohio’s economy as the nation comes out of a recession.
“We’re still going to be punished because we don’t have the table set right,” he said.
A Quinnipiac University poll released last week had Strickland leading Kasich by 10 percentage points. Strickland had a lead of 5 percentage points in a July Quinnipiac poll.
In response to Kasich’s criticism of Strickland, Seth Bringman, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Party, said: “Even during tough economic times, Gov. Strickland has expanded child health care, capped tuition increases, lowered property taxes and reformed Ohio’s public-education system.”
“Gov. Strickland is working every day to pull us out of the economic mess that was created by the Wall Street greed that John Kasich was a part of as managing director of Leh- man Brothers.”
It’s the exact quote he gave The Columbus Dispatch for an article the newspaper published two weeks ago.
Lehman Brothers, which was one of the world’s largest banks, declared bankruptcy protection Sept. 15, 2008. Weeks after Lehman failed, Congress approved a $700 billion bailout of the financial system.
During his Friday speech, Kasich addressed the issue with sarcasm, saying he caused the “financial meltdown” of the world’s economy from his little office.
Kasich said high taxes, government bureaucracy and wasteful spending are driving businesses out of Ohio.
After the appearance, Kasich said the cost of doing business in Ohio is “too high” and is “created by, at times, over-harassing bureaucrats, high taxes, uncooperative labor; it all comes together to penalize ourselves.”
skolnick@vindy.com