Don’t look now, but John Kasich is making a political comeback. The nine-term former Republican congressman from Ohio traveled to the GOP convention this year, where he electrified his home state’s delegation with an impassioned speech. In September, Kasich teamed up with Democratic ex-congressman Tony Hall on a new global-poverty initiative and joined Terry McAuliffe as a keynote speaker for the American Academy of Family Physicians.
But not all his endeavors are quite so bipartisan. Kasich has his eyes on the Ohio governor’s office, currently occupied by first-term Democrat Ted Strickland. Along with the state’s economy and manufacturing base, the state Republican party has taken a beating in recent years. Democrats hold every non-judicial statewide elected office but one, and made gains almost across the board in the 2006 elections.
Kasich hopes that the timing is right for a candidate focused on Ohioans’ pocketbook issues — he rose to national prominence as chairman of the House Budget Committee during the 19990s, helping deliver tax cuts and a budget surplus — to revive the Republicans’ sagging fortunes. That will depend in part on whether he can convince a majority of voters that his reform proposals, including a plan to phase out the state income tax, will also revitalize local job markets.
“People are excited to hear that [Kasich] might run,” says Delaware County GOP spokeswoman Kate Yonkura. “He really does represent heartland values.” Since leaving Congress in 2001 after unsuccessfully exploring a Republican presidential bid, Kasich has showcased those values — and kept in the public eye — as a commentator on Fox News. The occasional Bill O’Reilly substitute’s first Fox gig was hosting a show called “The Heartland.”
The Democrats would prefer to keep Kasich in the private sector, and the country’s financial woes may give them an easy line of attack. In addition to his television appearances, Kasich has done lucrative work as a managing director at Lehman Brothers. The 128-year-old investment bank filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, worsening the Wall Street meltdown.
Writer Quin Hillyer boosted Kasich as a potential running mate for John McCain, but has since worried that the Lehman affiliation could have been politically “disastrous.” “In this ‘gotcha’ atmosphere,” he wrote on the magazine’s blog’, “there is no way the media would have allowed him to escape blame if he were the Veep nominee, regardless of the fact that he seemed to have nothing to do with the company’s fall.”
Kasich’s former congressional colleagues have given him a sign of what the Democrats may have in store, as they portray Lehman Brothers as a symbol of Wall Street greed. Chief executive officer Richard Fuld was hauled before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and grilled by angry lawmakers about his multimillion-dollar compensation package. “You’r company is now bankrupt, our economy is now in a state of crisis, but you get to keep $480 million,” growled congressman Henry Waxman, the panel’s Democratic chairman. “I have a very basic question for you. Is this fair?”
Ohio Republicans downplay the significance of Lehman to Kasich’s potential gubernatorial campaign. “I don’t think the Democrats will get very far with that, and I haven’t heard any criticism there,” says Yonkura.
Paul Beck, a professor of political science at Ohio State University, didn’t think it was much of an issue either. “Kasich has been working for Lehman Brothers, but also has his own TV show and his leadership PAC, which seem to have taken more of his attention than Lehman Brothers,” he told me.
But Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama hasn’t escaped criticism for taking campaign contributions from Lehman executives. A memo circulated Monday showing that Obama raised more money from Lehman Brothers than anyone besides Hillary Clinton, and pointing out that Richard Fuld keeps a copy of The Audacity of Hope on his desk. It is hard to imagine that bare-knuckled Ohio Democrats will give Kasich a pass, especially since the Republican described Fuld as “an awesome guy” and “great leader.”
A better strategy might be for Kasich to defend his own his public- and private-sector record. Kasich’s investment-banking division was experiencing fee and market-share increases as late as the second quarter of 2008. He has been retained by Barclay Capital. In Congress, few did more to promote balanced budgets and fiscal responsibility even during the heyday of the Gingrich revolution. And finally, it helps Kasich that Lehman Brothers was not bailed out by the taxpayers.
Kasich is well-positioned to make fiscal conservatism relevant to working families’ bread-and-butter concerns, an area where Ken Blackwell failed against Strickland two years ago. While both men have challenged the Buckeye State political establishment, Blackwell was seen as just a right-winger, while Kasich plans to emphasize that he is a reformer. It could be a powerful message, if he can keep the Democrats from making his comeback another casualty of the financial crisis
– .W. James Antle III is associate editor of The American Spectator.