|
Republican candidate for Ohio governor, John Kasich, was in Marietta earlier this month to meet local residents and introduce himself.
Formerly the host of Heartland with John Kasich on Fox News and an occasional fill-in for Bill O’Reilly, the nine-term congressman is also a two-time bestselling author.
Now he has set his sights on the seat currently held by democratic Governor Ted Strickland.
“I have been campaigning all over the state, but I’ve come down here to talk about how we’re going to get some jobs created,” Kasich said. “The whole state is in deep trouble. That’s why I got into this.”
Kasich says the state is desperate for jobs, but time is running short because the current financial crisis has Ohio in a “meltdown”.
“Think of the state of Ohio like a restaurant. If you don’t have any customers in your restaurant you can’t raise prices. You need to lower prices and lower your overhead and change the menu to get more customers. Think of Ohio that way. So, Ohio has too much overhead. We have too much government that doesn’t work very well. It’s been run by people who have been too close to the special interests and our taxes are too high.”
Kasich sees his run for governor as an opportunity to restore prosperity. He points to the years he spent on the house budget committee in the late 1990s. However, it is his actions during that same timeframe that democrats point to with criticism.
“In the 1990s, Kasich tried to get rid of the Appalachian Regional Commission, which would have completely devastated our area,” said Molly Varner, chair of the Washington County Democratic Party. “The ARC is more than just ‘pet projects’ as he once called them. If Kasich wants to be Governor and if he wants our votes, he should understand the needs of Appalachia instead of championing Wall Street values.”
Kasich says he believes there are better ways to create jobs.
“We want economic development not just a government program that is full of red tape. Anything that is not producing jobs, just because it has a nice name doesn’t mean we keep it,” Kasich said. “We weren’t saying you shouldn’t have a commission that looks at poverty in rural areas. We are saying if you’re going to have something, it ought to work.”
He says this standard should apply to all government programs.
“We’ve got to look at every program. If the program isn’t working, we’ve got to get rid of it and figure out something that will work,” Kasich said.
Kasich says job creation will mean making the most of assets like the Ohio River and manufacturing already in place. He’s also looking to alternative energy for some solutions.
“We do have a lot of plants here,” Kasich said. “If we can put a man on the moon we ought to be able to clean coal.”
As for education, Kasich says “the principal should be in charge of the school and the teacher should be in charge of the classroom”. Through collective purchasing agreements between schools and municipalities, he believes entities can buy together and make the most of their dollars.
He also believes an important part of education is testing for kids.
“The values in our schools ought to be the same values that we have at the dinner table,” Kasich said.
He says teachers must be qualified and those who excel should be rewarded with higher pay.
For more information about the Kasich campaign, visit www.kasichforohio.com.