From the monthly archives: March 2011
We used to pick on the little read site Third Base Politics when Jon Keeling wrote there for a couple of reasons. One, we all knew that Jon Keeling was an ex-Kasich staffer whore who was astroturfing for the Kasich campaign from Virginia because no conservative blogger really cared that much for Kasich. We later were able to prove that Keeling was being paid through a company he created for what appeared to be the sole purpose of giving the Ohio Republican Party a name other than his own in which to cut the check to.
Now, Keeling has left [...]
Full Story... →John Kasich and the Republicans in the legislature have decided to go to war with teachers on multiple fronts – all of which have the potential to seriously hurt our state’s education system and impact the quality of education our kids receive.
There is a good deal of analysis out there regarding the damage that Kasich and the legislature will be causing in the name of “reform” but some of the best I’ve read lately has come from Greg Mild, an educator from Columbus who has been fired up by the attacks on teachers and the education system as [...]
Full Story... →On Saturday (note, not Sunday), the Columbus Dispatch did a story trying to outline how the Kasich Administration “solved” the $8 billion deficit that Mary Taylor predicted over a year ago.
The Dispatch even gave a nice little graphic to show their work:
During their public unveiling of the budget last week, the Kasich-Taylor Administration seemed to go at great lengths to give Mary Taylor her “I told you so moment” by framing the budget as proving her predictions about a $8 billion budget deficit as being vindicated even though the Strickland Administration conceded at the time [...]
Full Story... →Kasich’s budget is reliant on the State keeping BILLIONS of money that had been promised to local governments. Kasich’s response to this is that these local communities will reform by consolidation and sharing services with other local governments. This has led Kasich and some media outlets to praise Kasich’s budget as some sort of municipal reform plan.
But as Thomas Suddes pointed out over the weekend, Kasich’s budget is balanced by Kasich ignoring that local governments were promised certain funding to ease the fiscal impact the State imposed on them by removing the local government’s ability to raise [...]
Full Story... →As we reported on Friday, Kasich finally gave up the fight to keep Mark Kvamme on as head of the Department of Development. Kvamme, a venture capitalist from California, is constitutionally forbidden from serving in this position because his is not an Ohio resident. He will be replaced with James Leftwich from the Dayton Development Coalition (DDC).
The announcement of Kvamme’s departure initially seemed like good news. But the more I find out about Leftwich and his time at the DDC, the more this appointment scares the crap out of me.
While Kvamme and Kasich were still dreaming about [...]
Full Story... →Governor Kasich has promised to sell off Ohio’s assets to his banker friends, things like our prisons, economic development agency, lottery, liquor and roads.
Jeff Darcy of The Plain Dealer predicts The Great Seal of the State of Ohio is next.
Full Story... →
John Kasich isn’t the first politician to say one thing and do another after the election. But it’s not often you can actually make a video about how Kasich did that in one community after another.
I could have made a MUCH longer video, but I wanted something that drove the point home in a 60 sec ad format. Who knows? Maybe we’ll make this into a series.
Be sure to share this video with your friends!
Full Story... →Eight days ago John Kasich did a press conference with Mark Kvamme (former, short-lived and illegally appointed head of the Dept of Development) and the CEO of Bob Evans to announce the state would be giving Bob Evans $8 Million to move its headquarters from Columbus to New Albany.
If you were gullible enough to believe the tale John Kasich was spinning then you might actually think Bob Evans was ready to pack up and move its entire operation to Texas until Kasich’s team moved in at the “speed of business” and saved the day!
The real story is [...]
Full Story... →As any fan of the “West Wing” knows, Friday afternoon is “take out the trash” day in the communication cycle. Particularly, when March Madness is going on and everyone’s still drunk from St. Patrick’s Day/boasting JobsOhio funding.
Today, a bitter and angry Governor Kasich announced that he was permanently removing Mark Kvamme as Director of the Ohio Department of Development and naming James Leftwich to be the new Director. Kvamme will be appointed to a newly created “Director of Job Creation” post within Governor Kasich’s office. In other words, an office switching sham in order to try to [...]
Full Story... →Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols has a very difficult job to do. As the press secretary for Governor Kasich, he has work with the media despite his boss’ open contempt for them. In addition, he’s often called upon to defend the indefensible, such as arguing that lobbyist/utility industry executives laden PUCO adequately protects consumers, so it’s okay that Ohio is slashing the budget of the Consumers Counsel by more than half.
But at times, Nichols can exceed his own boss in saying really stupid and politically incorrect things. For example, during the campaign, Rob Nichols forced the campaign and Kasich to [...]
Full Story... →The Ohio February jobs report was just released this morning. For the twelfth straight month in a row, Ohio’s unemployment rate dropped from 9.3% in January (which was revised to show a larger drop than initially reported) to 9.2%. The national unemployment rate in February was 8.9%.
Ohio gained 13,600 jobs as the number of unemployed Ohioans also fell. So from February 2010 until last month, Ohio’s unemployment rate went from 10.6% to 9.2%, a 12-month 1.4% decrease. During that time, Ohio GAINED 77,600 jobs. The number of unemployed has dropped 82,000. So, most of the drop in [...]
Full Story... →Budget Watch
