Kasich on women: rhetoric vs. record
Review of appointments this year shows one-thirdwent towomen.
After the debate COLUMBUS— storm over Donald Trump’s treatment of Fox News host Megyn Kelly, Ohio Gov. John Kasich took a pass on condemning Trump’s derogatory remarks about Kelly and other women and instead tweeted out a statement on how he values women.
“I deliberately seek out different views in my life and work, and I am grateful for the strong women in my family, in my office, in my cabinet and on my campaign because they improve everything they touch,” he said in the Aug. 8 tweet.
But does Kasich’s record match his rhetoric when it comes to women?
Early in his tenure as governor, Kasich took heat for appointing an all-white Cabinet that was dominated by men. At the time, just four of 26 Cabinet posts were held by women. And this newspaper’s analysis at the time found that in his first seven months in office, Kasich appointed women to just 19.8 percent of seats on boards and commissions.
His record has improved. In the first seven months of 2015, the governor pickedwomen for onethird of his appointments to boards and commissions. Some boards focus on very specialized areas and members are not compensatedwhile other slots carry significant clout and sometimes a generous paycheck.
When making judicial appointments this year, Kasich put women on the bench 24 percent of the time and five of 25 Cabinet posts in his administration are currently held by women. His chief of staff, Beth Hansen, who led his office for nearly five years, recently took leave to become his presidential campaign manager.
“The governor is proud of the continued progress in bringing more women onto the team but is never satisfied and wants to see even more women come on board. He believes their views only strengthen the quality of policy decisions and efforts to implement them and isn’t content to rest but instead wants to continue to do and achieve more,” said Kasich press secretary Rob Nichols in an email.
‘Out there’ statements
Reporters who have followed Kasich through the years have witnessed him make a number of statements that seem to pigeonhole women in traditional roles. For example:
At a September 2012 Mitt Romney rally, Kasich said: “It’s not easy to be a spouse of an elected official. You know, they’re at home, doing the laundry and doing so many things while we’re up here on the stage getting a little bit of applause, right? They don’t often share in it. And it is hard for the spouse to hear the criticism and to put up with the travel schedule and to have to be at home taking care of the kids.”
In 2010, shortly after winning the governor’s job, Kasich said that in his family, he gets to make all the big decisions while he leaves the little stuff to his wife, Karen. “My wife makes all the minor decisions about where we live, what we eat, where we go, where we vacation and what we do on a daily basis,” he said. “So, she’s in charge of the family and she’s done a fantastic job.”
In his 2012 State of the State address in Steubenville, Kasich recognized his wife in the audience and then said, “I remember that cartoon that said ‘Kasich will still not reveal how he snagged that hot wife.’”
At the Ohio State Fair on July 29, Kasich called out to Karen Kasich by saying “What do you think, wife?” At the same event, he told a young girl who had just won an art contest for the third time that some day she’ll win the state fair queen title.
In recent major speeches, Kasich has come across as more respectful. At his presidential campaign announcement, he said: “Andmy wife — pray for her, she’s married to me. From the very tips ofmy toes to the top of my head, I just lovemy wife somuch — such a great partner and such a great lady.”
Karen Kasich, the mother of the couple’s 15-year-old twin daughters, Emma and Reese, has worked in health care, public relations and marketing. She last served as a vice president with GSWWorldwide, a health care advertising agency.
Ohio Democratic Party Chairman David Pepper said some of Kasich’s statements about women “are pretty out there.”
“He has got a string of statements about women that are eye-opening to say the least,” he said. “Now they are not in some ways as horrible as what Trump was saying in the last couple of days but they’re also, in the 21st century, statements you would not expect (from) men let alone elected officials who are seeking the presidency.”
Pay gap
Kasich has placed women in high roles. Mary Taylor is lieutenant governor and also serves as the director of the Department of Insurance. Bonnie Burman heads the Department of Aging, JacquelineWilliams the Commerce Department, Cynthia Dungey the Department of Job and Family Services and Tracy Plouck the Department of Mental Health.
But collectively, women have been paid less than men in Kasich’s administration. The newspaper’s analysis of 2013 data from the Ohio Department of Administrative Services found that women were paid $9.81 an hour less than men in Kasich’s office — the highest gap among the state’s five elected statewide officeholders at the time.
Kasich’s communications team argued that the gap was really just $5.04 an hour when including both office staff and policy advisers from other state agencies doing work for the governor’s office.
Data about the current pay for men and women in the governor’s office was not immediately available.
Policy debate
Perhaps the biggest argument over Kasich’s record with women has occurred over policy.
He expanded Medicaid and the health care program for the poor now includes an additional 595,000 Ohioans — a move Kasich has argued improved the lives of people throughout the state. He repeatedly says on the campaign trail that he dug Ohio out of an economic ditch and turned a projected $8 billion budget shortfall into a $2 billion surplus, another applause line that he says helps everyone.
But critics dispute how much of the economic turnaround was Kasich’s alone. And some argue that he has endorsed policies that hurt women.
“His out-of-touch budgets have shut down women’s health clinics in Ohio, and he proposed cutting preventive health care benefits for many low-income women,” said Holly Shulman, spokeswoman for the Democratic National Committee. “If that wasn’t enough, let’s not forget he voted against the Family and Medical Leave Act — not once, but twice.”
NARAL Pro-Choice Ohio Executive Director Kellie Copeland said Kasich has signed into law 16 major restrictions to abortion in Ohio, including a ban on pregnancy terminations after 24 weeks, requirements that women receive ultrasounds before abortions, a gag rule that prevents rape crisis counselors from talking to clients about abortion options, and requirements that clinics have transfer agreements with local hospitals.
Many of the abortion restrictions were included in a budget bill Kasich signed in June 2013, while flanked by men. A photo of the signing made national headlines.
“Of course he learned after getting beat up by the optics of that and this time made sure to have women in the shot,” Copeland said of the 2015 budget signing event.
Copeland said Kasich owes the public a full explanation of why he continues to embrace abortion restrictions. “When reporters ask about it, all he says is ‘I’m pro-life.’ He won’t even deign to talk about it. This has a major impact on people’s lives,” she said. “These are public policies. This isn’t a decision he is making on how to live his own life. This is a decision about what people across the state of Ohio can do.”
‘Pro-women’
Campaigning in New Hampshire last week, Kasich laid out his basic principles of governance. He wants to balance the budget, trim bureaucracy and empower the states.
On immigration, he is for building a wall but doesn’t want to tear families apart by deporting immigrants who are already here, even if they arrived illegally.
He said he wants to change the definition of what a conservative is.
Ohio Right to Life President Mike Gonidakis praised Kasich’s policies and said they have helped women and mothers throughout Ohio.
He mentioned Medicaid expansion, funding for rape crisis centers and a insurance mandate to cover autism-related health expenses.
“No governor before him — Democrat or Republican — can claim to have done this for Ohio’s women,” Gonidakis said in an email. “Kasich’s anti-abortion recordmeans more babies are born and mothers have a stronger safety net to help them.
“Kasich’s leadership is as ‘pro-women’ as it gets.”