Value of Kasich’s political stock continues to decline within GOP
On the side
Politico’s Playbook, the highly-influential online national politics newsletter, came out with its list of the “30 most powerful people and groups” in Washington, D.C., with Donald Trump as president. U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, made the list as a group with two other younger Democratic congressmen: U.S. Reps. Ruben Gallego of Arizona and Seth Moulton of Massachusetts.
Politico wrote: “Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Jim Clyburn – the House’s top Democrats – are all in their 70s and have been around for a long time. They’ve gone basically unchallenged – until this year. Ryan – with the backing of Gallego, Moulton and others – took on Pelosi and got 63 votes in a closed-door election. Yes, Ryan lost. Badly. But it got Democrats thinking about what’s next. This trio of lawmakers will help House Democrats chart a course forward and figure out who will lead them when the current leadership departs.”
Meanwhile, Mahoning County Republican Party executive committee members will meet at 10 a.m. Saturday at party headquarters in Boardman to appoint a member to the county board of elections. Party Chairman Mark Munroe, who’s served on the board since 1991 except for a two-year absence in the late 1990s, wants to be reappointed and almost certainly will get it.
Lame-duck politicians typically don’t wield much power.
But the past few months leaves people wondering what happened to the political career and clout of Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican.
After his presidential bid last year crashed and burned, Kasich positioned himself as the anti-Donald Trump with the expectation that the Republican presidential nominee would lose this past November and leave a void in the GOP that the governor would gladly fill.
Kasich badly misread the presidential election – as did many – and was dealt another devastating political blow last week when Matt Borges, who he made Ohio Republican Party chairman, lost that position to Jane Timken, who was not only backed by Trump, but had the benefit of having the president-elect personally make telephone calls to state central committee members on her behalf.
Under Borges, Republicans enjoyed historic success in Ohio against Democrats.
But Borges was too much of a Kasich loyalist and openly criticized Trump for some of the more stupid decisions and statements made by the president elect – and it cost him.
At one point, Borges was a frontrunner for national Republican chairman. Now he’s “chairman emeritus” and will soon be a memory as the party moves on without him.
Borges backed out of the race last week after committee members, a large majority who are/were Kasich loyalists, failed to give either him or Timken at least the required 34 votes needed to win the chairmanship. During two rounds of voting, Timken received 33 votes to 32 for Borges.
Seeing that a third round was either going to spell doom or that he’d already suffered an embarrassing setback by failing to get the votes needed from a group that spent the past few years overwhelmingly loyal to him and Kasich – who made phone calls to committee members on his behalf – Borges withdrew from the race giving the leadership position to Timken.
It was yet another kick in Kasich’s teeth by Trump, who should be more focused on bigger national issues, but wanted to settle some old scores.
Since Kasich’s refusal to attend the Republican National Convention in Cleveland – the coronation of Trump as the GOP presidential nominee – I’ve heard from numerous longtime and prominent party faithful about their profound disappointment with the governor’s refusal to back Trump.
Not that Kasich had a prayer of becoming president in 2020 if Democrat Hillary Clinton was elected over Trump, but his career in politics looks like it will come to an end in January 2019 when a new governor is sworn in.
It got so bad for Kasich that Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, perhaps his closest political ally, dumped Borges for Timken in the final days before the vote, according to Cleveland.com. Even worse, Kasich didn’t find out about it until the day before the vote.
Months ago, Kasich said he backed Taylor in the 2018 Republican gubernatorial race against Attorney General Mike DeWine and Secretary of State Jon Husted.
At the rate he’s going, Kasich’s endorsement isn’t going to mean much.
Between a recovering economy that started during the last year of former Gov. Ted Strickland’s administration and the raid of local government funds, the state’s financial situation was strong during Kasich’s time leading Ohio.
However, Kasich has recently said that Ohio is “on the verge of a recession,” and that programs and employees are going to take a “financial hit.”
Some of the blame can be laid at the feet of Republicans, with Kasich leading the way, who pushed for major income-tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy while increasing and expanding the sales tax.
Kasich will give the state Legislature his proposed two-year budget by Jan. 31 with cuts expected to be included in the spending proposal.
That’s also not going to give any comfort to the 2018 Republican statewide slate that will have to run in what is likely to be a weakened economic climate.
Meanwhile, his fellow Republicans hold a super majority in the state Legislature and could have easily decided to override Kasich’s vetoes on a number of bills they recently passed. It was out of respect and courtesy that stopped them from doing that.
With Kasich’s influence taking hit after hit and his gubernatorial term ending in less than two years, I don’t know how much longer he’s going to command that respect and courtesy.
While Ohio Democrats have been the very meaning of dysfunction, the problems facing Kasich may be the opening they need to at least become somewhat relevant in 2018. If Democrats can’t make any headway at a time when Republicans are this divided, there’s no hope for them for the foreseeable future.