It’s only a matter of time before the Ohio Democratic Party declares the Kasich-Taylor campaign a disaster in the making. And don’t take just my word for it, conservative blogger Scott Pullins, who in 2006 went out of his way to smear both Governor Strickland and his wife in efforts to help Ken Blackwell, writes a post today that virtually echoes my critique of the Kasich campaign.
Pullins’ post is a tour de force but here are some highlights:
Kasich’s Income Tax Repeal Plan Is Radioactive. Kasich’s only substantial policy idea is to repeal Ohio’s state income tax over a ten year period. Not even when I ran the fiscally conservative Ohio Taxpayers Association did I propose such a radical and unworkable idea. Heck, even when I was dabbling in that area I suggested at least a twenty year period to gradually phase it out, while increasing state sales taxes.
Kasich has no clue and apparently no intention to either propose spending cuts and/or alternative taxes large enough to make up the $15 billion dollar hole. Even the very conservative Tax Foundation is only proposing a flat rate income tax, not an outright repeal, which makes far more sense politically and policy wise.
Ohio voters rejected a repeal of the income tax in 1972 and rejected a repeal of a 90% income tax hike in 1983. Most of Ohio’s business community, including the big trade associations like the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the Ohio Manufacturers Association, the Ohio Council of Retail Merchants, and the Ohio Business Roundtable would all oppose it just like they helped pass this past years income tax increase (delay). Every group that relies on state funding would oppose this plan. No group would support it.
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Kasich has to abandon this plan and do so quickly. If not it will drag him down the drain in the coming months. Strike two.
Notice that Pullins mentioned the very same criticism I made about how even the conservative Tax Foundation doesn’t even support Kasich’s plan. Pullins, who comments occasionally on this site, also agrees that Taylor leaving the Auditor’s race gives us the greatest, and perhaps only realistic, chance at winning a majority on the Apportionment Board.
But second, over the weekend, Columbus Dispatch columnist Joe Hallett said on “Columbus On the Record” that:
My prediction is that John Kasich’s running mate will be State Auditor Mary Taylor. There, if she wants to join the ticket, he wants her. Creates a huge problem for the Republican Party because that leaves the Auditor’s job open and that’s an Apportionment Board seat. There’s an effort to try to get Mike DeWine into that job. There’s no way he’ll do it.”
Joe Hallett admitted that the issue isn’t, as Jon Keeling reported, whether Kasich will pick Taylor, but whether Taylor will accept. If there’s no Kasich-Taylor ticket, it’s because Mary (or the ORP or both) said no. And it won’t be Mike DeWine switching over to Auditor, it’ll be Josh Mandel.
I just made my first contribution to the David Pepper campaign. In fact, I agreed to make a monthly donation to the Pepper campaign. Why? Because I am now utterly convinced that David Pepper is running in an open seat election that he can win because there is no way Mary Taylor is going to embarrass John Kasich by telling him no.
Even if DeWine is the one to switch to Auditor, I still believe David Pepper will win. Pepper was one of the first Democrats to starting turning red Hamilton County into a deep hue of blue. He has the ability to raise money, especially once donors are convinced he has a real chance to win.
I haven’t said this publicly, but until now, I was convinced that there was no way for the Democrats to take control over the Apportionment Board. Now, John Kasich has handed to us that opportunity.
Not only that, but Kasich has given us a real chance to knockout two of the GOP’s few rising stars–Mary Taylor and Josh Mandel. I couldn’t imagine better pre-election news for Democrats this year.
Together, Pullins and Hallett have demonstrated that Kasich is betting on a Taylor ticket which even the right believes is a recipe for disaster, just like his tax platform.
John Kasich=Ken Blackwell. It’s only a matter of time before everyone starts realizing it.
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