Friday, February 27, 2015
Where’s the love? As he usually does, Gov. John Kasich mentioned Youngstown in his State of the State address. This time it was literally just a mention.
Talking about his plan to cut income taxes, the Republican governor said: “The fact is, in Ohio, punishing success will drive people out. So these folks, many of whom we all know, whether we live in Steubenville, whether we live in Youngstown, whether we live in Cleveland, whether we live in Toledo, Cincinnati, or Columbus, somebody has an opportunity to cash in what they earned.”
In his first State of the State in 2011, Kasich mentioned the Mahoning Valley often. Early in the speech, he said people ask him “why do you go to Youngstown?” and answered, “It’s in my blood.”
Since his November 2014 re-election, Kasich hasn’t been back to this area.
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman says his criticism of ex-Gov. Ted Strickland isn’t “necessarily an attack.”
Strickland, a Democrat, publicly announced his candidacy Wednesday for the Senate seat currently held by Portman, a Republican running next year for his second six-year term.
Rather than an attack, Portman described his statements, web ads and a website from his campaign critical of the Strickland as ways that “just [set] out the differences” between the two.
Portman said Strickland is “out of step with Ohio” on a number of issues, and he left Ohio “in a terrible state as governor.”
“This is going to be a competitive race,” Portman said.
The senator said Jan. 22, the day Cincinnati Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld announced he’d run next year as a Democrat for Senate, that “in a state like Ohio, you’ve got to expect a competitive race.” In that same call with journalists, Portman said he expected other Democrats to challenge him.
With Strickland’s announcement Wednesday and the quick responses from Portman, and state and national Republicans, it feels like the election is this November and not 20-plus months from now.
“We need to make people understand what’s at stake here,” Portman said Thursday. “I wanted to be sure to establish that contrast early on and let people know where I stand.”
A day earlier, Republican National Committee spokesman Raffi Williams said, “Ted Strickland is a failed former governor who is on the wrong side of the issues and lost because of it last time he ran. Voters rejected Strickland for a reason and it’s laughable to think he deserves a second chance.”
In an exchange with me on Twitter last week, Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges wrote that “anyone” would be a better Democratic candidate than Strickland.
“They could do better but they probably won’t. They are the [Ohio Democrats] after all.”
It’s the jobs of Borges and national Republican spokesmen/women to be publicly dismissive of Strickland. But based on the constant anti-Strickland emails from the state and national Republican organizations and the websites critical of the former governor, it’s obvious party officials are concerned about this race.
They’d be foolish not to be concerned and Republicans didn’t rise to power making foolish political decisions.
Despite the Republican bravado, Strickland is a legitimate threat to beat Portman.
He easily won the 2006 gubernatorial election — in a great year for Democrats — and lost the 2010 election — in a horrible year for Democrats — by only 2 percentage points.
In an interview with me, Strickland said, “You know the Republicans. They’re going to attack you for what you’ve done or make stuff up. The people of Ohio know me.”
Washington think tank
Sen. Portman welcomed Strickland back to Ohio. The former governor had spent the past 11 months as president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal think tank in Washington, D.C. Based on some of the center’s policies, it wasn’t a smart career move for Strickland to work there.
When asked about his residency, Strickland said he kept his “small condo” in Whitehall, which he described as a “working-class” suburb of Columbus.
It’s still very early, but this is already shaping up to be an interesting race.