Making the case for John Kasich

Guest Commentary:

I met John Kasich on the Flathead Lake tour boat, then named the Retta Mary, in the early 1990s. He was a young Ohio congressman, and along with a few of the other passengers, I intruded on his Montana vacation to engage him in conversation. I remember that he was concerned about corporate welfare. His view was that government shouldn’t play favorites among business and economic interests, and that the economic system functions better if government establishes general guidelines, and allows businesses to compete within them.

I was impressed by his genuinely jovial and outgoing demeanor. He liked everybody on the small tour boat, and everybody liked him. A year or two later I had a conversation with the president of the Ohio State Senate, and I asked him if he knew Kasich. He said he did, and that he had actually served with Kasich in the Ohio Senate before Kasich went on to Congress. He described him as independent-minded, outspoken and sometimes out of line with party leadership.  He commented that the young state senator frequently arrived for senate sessions on his motorcycle.

Though now characterized as part of the establishment. I doubt that term ever fit John Kasich. I’ve followed his career since meeting him. He’s been more of a maverick than an insider. I remember when he made the news by teaming up with activist Ralph Nader to reduce tax loopholes for large corporations.

In researching to write this column I learned that Kasich grew up in a lower middle class family, the grandson of southern European immigrants who couldn’t speak English. He’s been described by a long-time Ohio political observer as a “solid Republican, but a biological Democrat.”

Perhaps that observation helps to explain why he is hard to define on the political spectrum. In his time in public office, Kasich has sometimes been criticized by the NRA, abortion rights groups, the Sierra Club, defense contractors, the Tea Party, public employees unions and the AARP.

The common people of his congressional district who knew him, however, liked him and in eight races for reelection, he never won by less than 60 percent of the votes. This, in spite of the fact that he was no middle-of-the-roader, compiling a solidly conservative voting record over his 18 years in Congress.

The main thing Kasich has been is effective. As a member of the House Armed Services Committee he was repeatedly instrumental in reducing or eliminating wasteful and unnecessary defense spending. In doing so he was able to form alliances with liberal California Democrat Ron Dellums, and then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney.

As Chairman of the House Budget Committee he is best remembered as the “chief architect” of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, which created the only balanced federal budget in a sea of red ink extending back to the Eisenhower administration.

Kasich was elected Governor of Ohio in 2010 when the state was $6 billion in debt. By the end of his first term the state was two million in the black, and in 2014 Kasich was rewarded for reelection by Democratic as well as Republican Ohio voters, carrying 86 of the state’s 88 counties.

Kasich’s not colorful or charismatic, he just knows how to unify people and get things done. Too bad he’s not a colorful huckster, more bombastic, a tougher talker. It will be too bad indeed, if the people never come to recognize the trustworthy and effective leader they have been looking for, because he’s not a better showman.  

Bob Brown is a former Montana State Senator and Secretary of State