GOP candidates address Trump, Kasich
Four Ohio governor wanna-be’s each made their pitch Tuesday night to more than 500 Franklin County Republicans, but two people who weren’t in the Italian restaurant’s banquet room overshadowed the proceedings.
President Donald Trump and Gov. John Kasich.
How to deal with those dominant figures will be a key decision over the next several months in the probable GOP gubernatorial campaigns of Attorney General Mike DeWine, Secretary of State Jon Husted, U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor.
While the field to replace Kasich — prevented by term limits from seeking another consecutive fouryear stint — is expected to thin, Ohioans could see rare multi-candidate primaries in a little more than a year among both Republicans and Democrats.
Renacci, from Wadsworth, who ran the Columbus Destroyers Arena Football League team a decade ago, opted to embrace Trump and criticize some of Kasich’s most-touted accomplishments.
“I want to make Ohio first again,” Renacci said, echoing Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign theme. Renacci debuted a slick campaign video that blasted “career politicians just getting in there and not changing things,” although it made no reference to the three statewide officeholders he’s running against.
After the video, Renacci took on Kasich — again, without a specific mention.
“You might hear that Ohio has created over 440,000 jobs,” Renacci said. “They have, and that’s great.
“The problem is, though, that we have gone from 21st to 37th in job creation nationwide. And we have to change that. Too many jobs are leaving the state. Too many companies are going out of the state.”
When Taylor took the stage next, she said the jobcreation figure is 460,000 private-sector jobs since Kasich took office.
Taylor, already endorsed by Kasich, emphasized continuity by saying “I want to finish the work we’ve already begun,” including “fixing education.”
But the veteran of more than 14 years in politics also tried to jump on the Trump train, remarking, “Ohio spoke loud and clear in November, and we’re tired of career politicians.”
DeWine, with four decades of political experience, also praised Kasich.
“This Republican governor has done an amazing job. We need to take it to the next level,” the former U.S. senator, congressman and lieutenant governor said.
DeWine said he would emphasize the “unfinished business” facing Ohio, such as education and the state’s fatal attraction to opioids.
“We’ve got to get in front of some of these problems,” he said.
Like Taylor, DeWine acknowledged the impact of Trump, especially his selection of a new U.S. Supreme Court justice.
“Elections matter. Boy, do they matter,” DeWine said.
Husted, who instead attended another Republican event, sent a 90-second video message that included his appearance at a postelection Trump rally in Cincinnati where the secretary of state held high the form he had signed certifying Trump’s electoral win in Ohio.
Husted made no reference to Kasich, simply saying he’s trying to lead by example by cutting his own office’s budget.
With all current GOP officials occupying executive office facing term limits, Republicans are facing contests for virtually every slot on the statewide ticket.
“I hope that by the time we get to the spring of 2018, we will have the best possible Republican slate set, and we will accomplish that in the absence of a primary,” said Brad Sinnott, chairman of the county GOP central committee.
“There’s no party leader that wants a primary. A primary means that you are spending precious resources in the spring in an intraparty skirmish that you ought to be spending on winning the office in the fall.”
But Bryan Williams, chairman of the Summit County Republican Party, said a primary could be healthy for the GOP.
“Primaries make candidates stronger in the general election,” he said. “If you look at the campaigns where they bum-rushed the nominee, like Hillary Clinton ... they paid the price in November. Unless you give the candidates a chance to test their message, you don’t know where the weak links are.”