From the category archives:

GOP

[BREAKING:] Kasich running mate Mary Taylor conspiring to help re-elect Democratic Treasurer Kevin Boyce

by ModernEsquire on March 18, 2010 · Comments

You know, I used to think that “Scoop” Keeling was just a Kasich hack, but I’m starting to wonder if he’s just an idiot.

Today, Keeling joined Matt Naugle in pushing the latest Josh Mandel press release against State Treasurer Kevin Boyce.  In this latest installment of “I really don’t know anything about the office I seek”, Mandel alleges that Boyce is holding up state banking contracts as a way to raise more money for his campaign.

Except that both Mandel, Naugle, and Keeling ignore the fact that the decision to delay the awarding the contracts was not Boyce’s alone… keep that in mind when you see Keeling make statements like:

It seems that while there is leeway for Boyce to make the decision he made, there is very little logical motivation for the delay, besides the accusation made by Mandel.

Mandel actually made the entirely laughable demand that his general election opponent REFUSE to accept any campaign donations until the Board awards these contracts (a restriction that Mandel, (amazingly!,) doesn’t place on himself or even suggested he’d do if elected.)

Well, the Carpetblogger need not go far to find out the answer as to why the State Board of Deposit decided to make the decision, which was unanimous.

Why not ask one of the other members of the Board of Deposit… But who could “Scoop” ask?

Well, he could ask this guy…

Attorney General Richard Cordray

But he’s a Democrat, so he’d probably just cover for Boyce. 

Gee, if only there was a Republican member on the Board of Deposit…. oh wait, there’s is…. now who is that person?

Where have I seen her before?

John Kasich for Governor - A New Way. A New Day

Oh, yeah….

So, there are only three possibilities.  Either:

1)  Kasich running mate/State Auditor Mary Taylor (R) is a willful participant in a grand conspiracy to assist Democratic State Treasurer Kevin Boyce raise money to defeat Republican Treasurer candidate Josh Mandel;

2) Mary Taylor is a clueless dolt who unknowingly aided State Treasurer Kevin Boyce in a Democratic conspiracy to raise more money to defeat the Republican candidate; or

3) Jon Keeling, Matt Naugle, and Josh Mandel are full of shit… again.

Because, and I’m going to say this sllllllooooooowwwwllly so the Virginia Carpetblogger can understand this since he’s apparently not up on what occurs in Ohio’s government:

Mary

Taylor

Voted

To

Delay

Awarding

Those

Contracts,

Too.

So, of course, I look forward to Naugle and Keeling both publicly calling on the Kasich campaign to refuse and return any money from any PAC associated with any bank looking to be awarded a contract by Mary Taylor’s vote on the State Board of Deposit until these contracts are awarded.

And I can’t wait to hear someone in the media finally bother to ask Josh Mandel whether the Kasich campaign should refuse any campaign donations until May as well since Taylor herself has a vote in awarding these contracts.

I can’t wait for any of this stuff because I know it’ll never happen.

It’s all just election-year bullshit being paraded around as some scandal du jour  with no hint of the complete and utter ridiculousness of the charge.

Surprise, surprise, Jon Keeling gets yet another story completely wrong.  What is this, his fourth one in the past week?

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Tea Baggers protest Ohio Republican Party over Auditor endorsement; Ohio GOP reportedly called the police on them.

by ModernEsquire on February 2, 2010 · Comments

This is the funniest Ohio teabagging video NOT shot by Tim or Eric (Awesome Show, Great Job!).

Second Amendment….. YEEEEESSSS!  CPA! CPA!  Constitution.  WHOOOO!

They’re mostly protesting Mike DeWine’s nomination as AG, but it’s being held while the Ohio GOP’s Executive Committee is endorsing David Yost over Dayton Teabagging favorite freshman House Member/CPA!!!! Seth Morgan.

And the sirens at the end?  Yeah, Matt Hurley at WMD repotrs that it was the Ohio GOP that called the police over the nonviolent, peaceful Teabagging protestors:

Where is Mr. “I was Tea Party before there was a Tea Party” Kasich stand on this? Calling the cops because the backroom deal got exposed…nice! When the time comes, and believe me it is coming, there is a whole lot of folks who are going to be able to say that they didn’t leave the republican Party, the Republican Party left them behind.

Conservatives are asking why Yost is qualified for an Ohio GOP endorsement for Auditor, when the State refused to endorse in the AG’s race.  Not an unfair question.  And further evidence of the political collateral damage caused by John Kasich’s pick of Mary Taylor, and everyone recognizes it as such.

By the way, who’s that miserable looking Republican operative staring out the window?  And where does the GOP buy their party issued blue blazers?  The Constitution demands they answer!  YEEEEEEAAAAA!

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Another paper questions whether Kasich’s tax plan would help Ohio’s economy (in ANY decade)

by ModernEsquire on January 27, 2010 · Comments

This time it’s the Lorain Morning Journal:

A story released yesterday by the Associated Press calls into question Kasich’s claims that eliminating the income tax will return money to Ohio residents’ pockets. The story reports that of the nine states without a broad-based tax on personal income like Ohio’s, four still collect more taxes per person than Ohio by charging more in other taxes. The other five states are collecting within $650 of Ohio in total per-person state taxes.

…

If Kasich indeed has a large “good” idea, he needs to explain it, particularly how eliminating the Ohio income tax won’t cripple vital state and local services. But if it turns out to be a large “bad” idea, a ploy to draw attention to the campaign, Kasich and Taylor will have a lot to explain to Ohio voters between now and Nov. 2.

Granted, this isn’t one of the big dailies.  However, it’s picking up the central indictment to Kasich’s tax plan:  it costs too much, takes too long, and is too ineffective to help.

Kasich’s tax plan, in some form, is going to have to requiring higher and newer taxes.  It’s basic math.  Besides that, not even the campaign claims it can even be done within a decade.  Besides that, it ignores the fact that most job-creating businesses don’t pay the personal income tax in the first place.  Besides that, the Kasich-Taylor tax plan ignores that at least three of the States without an income tax (Tennessee, Florida, and Nevada (which has the second highest unemployment rate)) have the same or higher unemployment than Ohio.  Each of these points, in and of themselves, calls into question the very rationale for the Kasich-Taylor tax plan, and yet, they cannot answer a single one of these points.

And all the talk about his tenure as the House Budget Chairman or how Mary Taylor is a CPA and the State Auditor doesn’t answer or deflect from those questions, it just makes their complete and utter inability to answer the most obvious of questions all the more damning.

Again, to figure out how much John Kasich and Mary Taylor’s reckless tax plan will cost your home county in either budget cuts and/or higher local taxes, go to the Kasich taxes web calculator by the Ohio Democratic Party.

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The ripples of the Kasich-Taylor disaster continues to spread throughout the GOP ticket.

by ModernEsquire on January 26, 2010 · Comments

ORP Chairman Kevin DeWine clearly doesn’t think a failed County Auditor candidate/freshman do-nothing State Representative is the best chance for the GOP to stop David Pepper from winning the Auditor’s race, or else he wouldn’t have recruited former AG candidate David Yost to challenge the freshman.

Of course, just as when Taylor damaged her brand with conservatives by jumping ship and running on the Kasich ticket, Yost did the same as well.

Now, those conservative bloggers who cannot hold their tongues are publicly fuming that the GOP has somehow navigated from a likely incumbent re-election on an Apportionment Board seat to a contested primary for an open seat race in which the Democratic candidate has nearly a year head start on the GOP candidates.

Before Yost jumped to the Auditor’s race, Morgan had quickly “staffed” up with leaders from the SWO Tea Party movement.

Now the Tea Baggers are in open revolt over the Ohio GOP’s efforts to recruit Yost into the race and have the state party endorse him quickly to force the Freshman out of the race.

Conservative activists are scrambling to fight the Ohio GOP from giving the AG nomination to Mike DeWine… Kevin DeWine’s relative, who has run a gawdawful campaign that hasn’t even so much as updated his website since he announced last July.  They see two of their promising “stars” going after each other… Meanwhile, you have Rose over at Bizzyblog writing:

And where is “I’m bordering on ego & narcissism” John Kasich? So much for leadership…grabs the Auditor under the guise of “the top of the ticket will drive the other races,” then allows idiots like Husted & DeWine to prevent that from happening? So much for any of them paying attention to what’s happening on the ground.

Meanwhile, David Pepper’s campaign has been silent as a church mouse over all of this.  Not even one fundraising pitch has gone out during this time.

Grab the popcorn.  Who said uncontested Republican primaries were boring?

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Great moment in subliminal advertising by the Kasich-Taylor ticket

by ModernEsquire on January 14, 2010 · Comments

After reading my live blog of the Kasich-PalinTaylor press conference today where I noticed ads by employers looking to hire Ohioans popped up every time one of them said jobs, a fan of the site sent me this even better screen capture:

Kasich Taylor divorce

I bet Ohio GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine clicked it to see if it applies to political marriages.

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ODP Chairman Chris Redfern to hold press conference at 1:30 p.m. to discuss Kasich-Taylor ticket

by ModernEsquire on January 14, 2010 · Comments

I love how he picks the 1:30 Tweet time recognizing the farce that is the later 3 p.m. press conference.  I just hope that Redfern isn’t drunk over all the good news this ticket gives us.

Any sober, sane person who looked at Mary Taylor’s race would realize she won that race because it was the weakest, worst campaign of the entire Democratic ticket.

Hell, I predicted months before the election that Taylor would win given the completely invisible campaign of Sykes at the time.

If Mary Taylor was such a formidable opponent, then David Pepper’s fundraising wouldn’t have scared her from running for re-election.

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Great moments in Jon Keeling delusions…

by ModernEsquire on January 13, 2010 · Comments

Jon Keeling, the Pravda of all things Kasich, is really trying to have it both ways with the Taylor pick: it’s unimportant/great news….

First, I have to mock him for this:

Last week 3BP was the first to place their bets on Mary Taylor being Kasich’s LG pick.

You didn’t bet on anything Keeling.  You reported that you were told that it was Taylor, reported it, and now are trying to declare yourself a political psychic.  It would have worked if, when you first wrote about Taylor, you didn’t write that your hearing from multiple people from Taylor.  Nobody reads you because of your insight.  We read you because your a source of intel for the inner workings of the Kasich campaign.

Then’s there this spin:

And we all know what matter first and foremost in announcements like this is the media coverage. Well, that’s the best part of these reports – the positive message that comes with them.

No, the thing that matters first and foremost is your base.  And that didn’t go over so well now did it?  Second, I cannot recall a single time that a Lt. Governor pick didn’t get mostly positive coverage.  Fuck, even Bryan Flannery’s running mate/ND Football teammate got favorable coverage in his bio stories about him.

Third, what positive coverage?  Of the two you cite, in the Dispatch, they note that Taylor is because she’s a poor fundraiser who was facing a tough re-election and because she wants to draw a government salary with no real responsibilities.

Yes, damn right fauning.

And the Plain Dealer (in the very next paragraph that Keeling quoted)?:

She is not a strong fund-raiser, which was apparent by her noticeably slow start to her re-election campaign last summer against challenger Democrat David Pepper, a Hamilton County commissioner.

And despite holding a statewide office, she is not widely known. Democrats also question her work ethic, saying she is too rarely heard from as auditor unless she is criticizing Strickland.

Then Keeling gets to the real issue for the GOP, Kasich’s ticket leaves no strong candidate for Auditor which was a key component of their strategy to keep a majority on the Apportionment Board.  Keeling writes as if this is a sign of faith by Republicans, but as Scott Pullins reported, the ORP appears to have been kept out of the loop entirely.

Yes, Jon, they have so much faith in this ticket, that’s why not a single Republican has come forward and applauded this ticket.  Something you’d also ordinarily expect when a Lt. Governor pick is named.

Keeling is right that Sarah Palin-lite isn’t going to move alot of voters.  But as the recent book being discussed on all the cable networks,  because the pick of the running mate is the first real indication of how a candidate will govern, it’s telling.

And, boy, is it telling in this case.

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Conservative blogsphere wakes up, and is not happy to see what the Ohio GOP is trying to do help Kasich

by ModernEsquire on January 12, 2010 · Comments

Remember this morning when I wrote that conservatives would get upset to hear that ORP Chairman Kevin DeWine is now trying to get AG candidate David Yost to run for Auditor instead?  Yeah, it’s already happening.

I’ll just say this.  One of the first responsibilities of a gubernatorial candidate is to wisely pick a Lt. Governor candidate who will not cause you problems with your base or independents.

For all the criticisms of Ken Blackwell as a candidate, he didn’t generate this kind of anger and resentment in his party over his Lt. Gov. pick.  John Kasich, on the other hand, has conservative bloggers seeing red and writing that they don’t care if he loses.  I may have to start using John Kasich < Ken Blackwell now.

Can’t wait to read the rose-colored glasses spin of this by Joe Hallett/Jon Keeling.

John Kasich < Ken Blackwell.

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The governor’s race will boil down to Strickland’s record v. Kasich’s broken record

by ModernEsquire on January 11, 2010 · Comments

The race for Governor is going to be decided on two selling points:

1.  Can Strickland communicate his record with voters effectively enough to convince them to give him a second term?

2.  Can John Kasich’s broken record for massive “tax repeals” win over voters despite the fiscal costs and growing academic work (including from conservative groups like the Tax Foundation) that it won’t work?

In Sunday’s Columbus Dispatch column by Joe Hallett, Strickland picked up an endorsement, of sorts, that should give John Kasich’s campaign reason to consider knocking that repeating needle off its loop ASAP:

Eric Burkland, president of the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, told me recently that Strickland has helped position Ohio for better days: “We’ve got a tax structure right now that beats anybody,” he said.

The Ohio Manufacturers Association is a trade group that has historically overwhelmingly supported Republicans.  When I worked in the Statehouse, I remember how frustrated we Democrats were in how much the OMA was able to bankroll the Republicans they needed to get just about anything they wanted.  They threw one of the best legislative receptions with lobbyist in Columbus (ironically, McDonald’s lobbyist event had the best food, but it was catered by someone other than McD’s.)  The OMA is so tied to the Ohio Republican Party historically we used to joke that you didn’t know where one ended and the other began.

And now, its President has essentially endorsed Governor Strickland’s record on the signature issue for the Kasich campaign.

So let’s see, first it was the conservative Tax Foundation.  Then it was the President of the former Ohio Taxpayers Association.  Now, it’s the President of the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association.  John Kasich is running out of friends to potentially support his crazy tax schemes.

For the first month of the campaign year, John Kasich’s news has been just downright gawd awful.  I cannot remember any time that the head of the OMA praised a Democrat’s record over a Republican, until now.  And believe me, the head of the OMA doesn’t get that gig if he has a tendency to speak out of school.  They are one of the most politically disciplined organizations there are in Ohio.  For him to come out publicly in favor of Strickland over Kasich is huge.

Pullins referenced this in his tour de force earlier today, but how is Kasich going to convince Ohioans that his radical tax plans are the cure for Ohio’s economic ills in the face of the opposition of the Tax Foundation and just about every major business interest group in Ohio?

He’s not.

John Kasich=Ken Blackwell.

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It’s beginning to look alot like Christmas…

by ModernEsquire on January 11, 2010 · Comments

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.

…

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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Not even the conservative Tax Foundation will say that Kasich’s tax plans will help Ohio’s economy.

by ModernEsquire on January 11, 2010 · Comments

Last week, several conservative bloggers, including Virginia-based/unofficial Kasich campaign blogger Jon Keeling (a.k.a. I.T. 1040sauce) wrote about a recent “study” by the Tax Foundation regarding Ohio’s tax climate.

Billed as a non-partisan organization, the Tax Foundation is nonetheless a conservative ideological one whose studies and methodology has been criticized widely by economists. 

Among its board members is Gingrich-era House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer.  It’s President, who authored the “study” on Ohio, is Scott Hodge. According to the Tax Foundation’s website, Hodge was behind the Gingrich and then Bush Administration’s effort to cut the federal capital gains taxes.  “Before joining the Tax Foundation, Scott was Director of Tax and Budget Policy at Citizens for a Sound Economy. He also spent ten years at The Heritage Foundation, including eight years as Heritage’s Grover Hermann Fellow in Federal Budgetary Affairs.”  Citizens for a Sound Economy was the predecessor organization of Dick Armey’s FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity.

So, when you see someone like Hodge from a conservative organization on tax issues suddenly decide to issue a report on Ohio’s taxes at the beginning of an election year in which the Republican candidate has made taxes his entire platform, I guess you can guess what that report would say, right?

Well, no. 

1.  Ohio has actually lost more population after massively cutting the income tax.

The Tax Foundation’s own data rebuts Kasich’s main argument that tax cuts stem out-of-state migration. 

2005 was the first year of massive income tax cuts.  The result was that population loss actually accelerated.  Does this suggest a negative correlation?  No, but it does establish that there is no correlation between cutting taxes and population lost.  Remember, in conservative blogs, the use of a chart ends all debate.

2.  According to the conservative Tax Foundation, state spending in Ohio per capita has been relatively flat when you factor for inflation.

Second, has Ohio seen exploding state government spending?  Not according to Hodge:

During the same period, however, Ohio’s state spending grew from $38 billion in 1993 to over $60 billion today, roughly keeping equal after adjusting for population and inflation changes. (emphasis added).

Basically when you adjust for changes in population and factor in inflation, Ohio is spending the same amount per capita as it was back in 1993.  That seems to refute any notion by Kasich that Ohio has out-of-control government spending, especially when you consider the source.

Don’t get me wrong, the study talks negatively about Ohio’s tax environment (it is, after all, a study by the Tax Foundation), but the study when taken as a whole, does not do what you’d expect an election-year study by the Tax Foundation would say–  It does NOTHING to support Kasich’s case for repealing Ohio’s personal income or estate taxes.  Instead, quite the opposite.  It provides a conservative argument why Kasich’s platform is unlikely to improve Ohio’s economy. 

3.  The Tax Foundation’s own study concludes less expensive, more modest reforms other than what Kasich is promoting would be more effective.

Even though the stated purpose of the study is to suggest improvements to Ohio’s tax environment to make it “attractive” to businesses and job growth (the stated rationale for Kasich’s platform), it doesn’t even discuss either of Kasich’s proposals as something that would significantly improve Ohio’s economic climate.

The Tax Foundation does not even call Ohio’s progressive income tax or its estate tax one of Ohio’s most “anti-growth taxes.”  Again,the Tax Foundation’s study seems to suggest that Kasich’s plan is an ineffective way of improving Ohio’s economy.  Let me say that again, one of the most conservative tax organizations in the nation cannot bring themselves to say that Kasich’s platform would help. Instead of repealing Ohio’s personal income tax, the Tax Foundation instead suggests, predictably, that Ohio move to a flatter income tax.  I will say that Ohio’s nine income brackets does seem excessive. 

The taxes the Tax Foundation suggests should be repealed is the Commercial Activities Tax and the state’s capital gains tax.  Ironically, the Tax Foundation singles out the CAT tax as the most anti-growth tax in Ohio.  Ironic because it was instituted by Republicans in the General Assembly because the Tax Foundation called Ohio’s inventory tax… the most anti-growth tax in Ohio. 

However, nowhere in this study does the Tax Foundation recommend any component of John Kasich’s platform.

In fact, the massive reductions in spending caused by a repeal of the personal income tax would make the changes the Tax Foundation recommends fiscally impossible.

4.  Ohio’s personal income tax rates don’t put Ohio at an unique disadvantage to other States.

According to the Tax Foundation: “Ohio’s top income tax rate of 5.925% is about average regionally and nationally.”  What the Tax Foundation says makes Ohio rank so poorly in its business environment ranking (which has been widely criticized by economist for ideological bias) is local municipalities and school districts income taxes.

When not even the Tax Foundation can sign onto your signature issue, you know you have problems.  While Keeling and other conservative bloggers liked the Tax Foundation’s press release for the study for its catchy headline, they apparently didn’t read the study.  Because the actual study is a damning indictment as how silly repealing Ohio’s income tax would be.

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Jon Keeling, aside, nobody on the Right thinks Kasich-Taylor is a good idea

by ModernEsquire on January 11, 2010 · Comments

For the third time in less than a week, Jon Keeling (a.k.a. M.C. Kasichsauce) tries to put lipstick that is the GOP pig of sacrificing a pretty safe Auditor’s seat simply to have Taylor run as a way to boost Kasich’s ticket with the Tea Bag crowd.

Keeling disingenuously says that putting Taylor on the ticket isn’t about shaking up the race or shoring up the base.  That’s utter nonsense.  Otherwise, why  else would Kasich be going to the only non-judicial statewide Republican who won in Ohio in 2006?

I love how Keeling writes as if the issue is whether Kasich will pick Taylor rather than whether Taylor would be dumb enough to agree to run on a Kasich’s ticket.  As I pointed out over the weekend, it’s pretty damn clear that Kasich has been pushing Taylor to be his running mate for awhile now.  (I also love how Keeling says he’s betting that Taylor is the pick as if his bet isn’t based entirely on his inside information.)

Back in September, Kasich even acknowledged that Taylor needed to stay in the Auditor’s race for the good of the party:

Kasich’s lively speech also called for the re-election for Auditor of State Mary Taylor: “Thank God we’ve got a woman there and we’re gonna keep her there as long as she wants to stay.”

Now, it’s please, Mary I need you on my ticket… I’m publicly begging you.  It’s so transparent, it’s pathetic.

In fact, back in August, the idea of moving Mandel into the Auditor’s race was based on the false narrative that Pepper’s fundraising is poor for reasons wholly unrelated to the fact that most people think he will have a hard time beating Taylor.  If she’s not the candidate, then you can even ignore the next fundraising report due at the end of this month because the second that becomes news Pepper will start hauling all sorts of cash once his race becomes an open seat race.

In what was a tough call due to the tight competition, here’s the most absurd thing Keeling says about putting the Auditor’s seat at risk:

So, if Kasich & Husted win, no matter what happens to the Auditor’s seat, Republicans win the apportionment board. Sure, 4-1 is better than 3-2, but a majority is a majority.

And right now I don’t think any serious pol from either side would bet against both Kasich and Husted winning in November.

Um, actually, with Taylor as Auditor, Husted as Secretary of State, they’d still have the Apportionment Board even if Kasich loses.  And despite the recent poll data, most pundits still predict that Strickland is going to be re-elected. (Cook Political Report still considers the seat as Leaning Democratic, Rothenberg lists it as a tossup as does CQ.  In fact, there’s not a single pundit that has actually predicted that Kasich is more likely than not going to win.  There’s no doubt that Strickland has a fight on his hands due to the economy, but there’s NOBODY saying that Kasich is a sure bet to win.)  Regardless, I think pundits on both sides of the aisle would readily admit that Taylor was the most likely to win her race if she ran for re-election, with Husted as second most likely, and Kasich at third.  That’s why moving Taylor out of the Auditor’s race is great news for the Ohio Democratic Party.  Thank you, John Kasich for giving the Democrats a chance to win the Apportionment Board despite the hostile political environment.

Look, Jon, we all know that Kasich has been pushing for this ticket for awhile now and you guys have decided to go public with your campaign to draft Taylor, but stop pretending that this is a no-brainer.

If it were as glorious of an idea as you thought, then you wouldn’t have to sell Taylor and the GOP establishment on it.  The fact is that there hasn’t been one single elected Republican, one Ohio conservative blogger (other than the out-of-state Kasich blogger Keeling) or anyone in the ORP calling this a “capital” idea demonstrates what a bad idea it would be.  When the hacks aren’t even willing to publicly do what hacks do, it’s a disaster.

In fact, there is extreme anxiety over reforming the ticket simply because Kasich is hoping some of Mary Taylor’s magic will rub off on him.

For Taylor, it makes absolutely no sense to do it unless she’s an Ohio Democratic Party sleeper agent.  If that’s the case, my hat’s off to Chris Redfern.  Regardless, John Kasich’s desperate public courtship of Taylor is all the evidence I need to say that Kasich is worried that he can’t keep the GOP base behind him until November, and that Taylor, so far, is not sold on the ticket.

As much as I would love the political ramifications of a Kasich-Taylor ticket, I’m not going to get my hopes up.  We simply cannot be this lucky that Kasich would run a McCain-Palin 2.0 ticket in Ohio just two years after the first one flopped so spectacularly.

There’s actually more documented enthusiasm on the left on this and other left-wing political sites over the idea of a Kasich-Taylor ticket than there is on the utter silent right.  What does THAT tell you?

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Kasich-Taylor ticket rumor is evidence of total Kasich campaign desperation.

by ModernEsquire on January 9, 2010 · Comments

I’m going to give you a Madden playbook why John Kasich’s courtship of State Auditor Mary Taylor makes no sense for anyone but John Kasich.  But let’s start with the most obvious point: it is absolute insanity for the Republicans to risk the only Apportionment Board seat they held in 2006 by moving an incumbent who was on track for a relatively safe re-election so that she can run for the non-essentially (from both a political and governing sense) Lt. Governor slot.

It’s is amazingly insane.  Second, if it were a done deal, Kasich wouldn’t first float it through Jon Keeling’s blog and then let the Cleveland Plain Dealer and Columbus Dispatch’s Joe Hallett write about as if it weren’t.  They’d just announced it.

Read Hallett’s column and tell me it doesn’t sound like Hallett isn’t practically serenading for John Kasich’s public political courtship of Mary Taylor.  Kasich is trying to put Taylor on the spot:  join my ticket and help me keep the Tea Bag base from deserting me by November when they realize how I’ve been an anti-establishment phony for the past year, or publicly embarrass me, the Republican standard bearer.  (Most of Kasich’s arguments don’t even make sense.  Taylor could arguably attack Strickland just as easily running for re-election.)

Believe me, if the GOP establishment wanted Taylor to be Kasich’s running mate, Kasich wouldn’t feel the need to put Taylor on the spot so publicly.  It would have been an arranged political marriage and announced, no such speculation has existed in the past.  Kasich is doing this because there is strong resistance in the Republican party to having this ticket, just look at the comments on Keeling’s blog.

Despite Taylor’s claimed fundraising woes, she’s still the only Republican to survive 2006, and nothing has happened since then that has made her more politically vulnerable.  Privately, most Democrats would even agree that Taylor was heavily favored for re-election.

Move her out of the Auditor’s race, and it’s an open seat (Taylor could not even resign in the hopes to make the Republican candidate to replace her the incumbent.  Any such vacancy would be filled by appointment by Governor Strickland.)  Suddenly, Hamilton County David Pepper has more than just a fighting chance for the office.

Who’s the most likely candidate to replace Taylor if she agreed to be Kasich’s running mate?  Well, it sure as hell isn’t Mike DeWine or Matt Dolan.  After all, what political calculation would require Kasich to need the support of Mary Taylor but DeWine as Auditor?

No, the most likely replacement to Taylor would be Josh Mandel, who is currently running for State Treasurer.  This means Kevin Boyce is likely re-elected as opposed to being considered highly vulnerable.

Even with Mandel and his millions in the race, it’s still a very competitive open seat race, and not one where Mandel’s qualifications put him at any unique advantage, either.

There is no way that Taylor leaves the Auditor’s race without making that race more likely for a Democratic takeover as a result.  None.

And if Boyce and Pepper wins, so does Jennifer Brunner.  It would be highly unlikely that any party captures the Auditor’s and Secretary of State’s races in open seat races while losing the gubernatorial race.  Therefore, with Pepper viewed as now likely to win the Auditor’s office, Brunner’s run for Senate isn’t as loaded down with Apportionment Board concerns.

And Jon Husted has to be wondering why he endured all the attacks over his residency only to see the ticket up ended such that his win is viewed as largely irrelevant.  Jennifer Garrison also loses as Democrats can support Strickland and Pepper while sitting on their hands over her.

If there is any hallmark of the Ohio Republican Party is that they tightly control the formation of their statewide tickets before now.  And just last week, ORP Chairman Kevin DeWine saw with justified confidence that his party was likely to win the Secretary of State’s race and Auditor’s office, thus an almost guarantee that they’d keep the Apportionment Board.  If Taylor bolts for Kasich, that is all upended just 41 days until petitions must be filed.

Which is, again, why it would be absolutely insane, both for the Ohio GOP and Taylor personally, for her to join Kasich’s ticket.  That’s why Kasich is resorting to putting his courtship so publicly to put Taylor on the spot.

It’s a huge gamble.  Because either Taylor does this and gives the Democrats a real shot at picking up a crucial seat on the Apportionment Board, or worse, she says no and publicly embarrasses Kasich and make him look incredibly weak.

You cannot look at the idea of Taylor on the ticket and not be reminded of the reason John McCain chose Sarah Palin.  Like Kasich, McCain picked Palin to try to encourage conservative excitement.  Like McCain, Kasich is courting Palin Taylor to present himself as outside the Bush Republican establishment.

If you doubt that there’s lack of enthusiasm for Kasich consider this: the only conservative blogger that has been writing about Kasich at all is his former congressional staffer … from Virginia.  There isn’t a single conservative blogger in Ohio who’s been writing with any excitement for John Kasich.  Not Kyle Sisk, WMD, Bizzyblog, Matt Naugle… none of them. They’ll, at best, write about Strickland, but Kasich is persona non grata.  Among Ohio conservative bloggers, John Kasich is getting a colder reception than Ken Blackwell did.

Chris Redfern has to be nearly drunk in delight at this development.  No matter what Taylor decides, he wins.  If Taylor runs, suddenly Kasich has made the Republican’s most secure Apportionment Board seat a tossup race.  If Taylor doesn’t join the ticket, then Kasich looks incredibly weak amongst his own Republicans.  Regardless, behind the scenes, Republicans are fuming that their frontrunner has created this predicament.

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John Kasich: Swears he’s not a slave to the Bush Republican Party, then announces Bush fundraiser

by ModernEsquire on January 8, 2010 · Comments

In 2000, when he dropped out of the Presidential race, GOP Gubernatorial candidate John Kasich called W. Bush his “soul brother.”

In a June 26, 2009 CNN story on the Bush years (featured on Kasich’s campaign website), Kasich said:

“The Republican Party is my vehicle, not my master,” he said. “I mean I am here to try to bring prosperity back to this state, to make sure families are better off. I’m not here to carry anyone’s banner.”

…

“They [The Bush Administration] stopped solving problems,” said Kasich, who after his House tenure worked on Wall Street and as a cable TV political commentator and host. “Whenever you don’t have any ideas and are afraid to put things forward, you are going to lose energy. That’s what happened to the GOP and frankly I’m as mad as anybody in this country about what they did in the last 10 years, or since 2001.”

Today, in the Dispatch: “Jeb Bush in Ohio for Kasich”

His last fundraiser featured Sean Hannity.

John Kasich ISN’T a slave to the Republican Party; he’s their whore.  Huge difference.

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Conservative blogger finally admits it: John Kasich will raise taxes

by ModernEsquire on December 7, 2009 · Comments

Kyle Sisk is the first conservative blogger to admit that the entire candidacy of John Kasich for Governor is about hiding one fact: that for all his promises to repeal taxes, not only will John Kasich not do that, but he’ll raise taxes instead.

Given Sisk’s recent history of scrubbing his website when he realizes the import of his post is counterproductive, here’s the screenshot:

image

Meanwhile, it’s Strickland’s public construction contract and sentencing reforms that are the structural reforms that the Senate GOP has adopted as their own (both were originally introduced in the Governor’s budget.)

It’s nice to finally see a conservative honestly admit that the entire platform of the Kasich for Governor campaign is a sham solely designed to dupe conservatives to believe that a vote for Kasich is a vote to repeal, not raise, taxes.  You’re right, Kyle, I understand exactly why the Kasich campaign would want to keep that quiet.

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