Ohio gov decries partisanship, lashes out at Dems

JULIE CARR SMYTH

AP State­house Correspondent

COLUMBUS — With his bud­get now passed, Repub­li­can Ohio Gov. John Kasich blasted Democ­rats and their allies on Fri­day for pur­su­ing a par­ti­san agenda while fight­ing his efforts to fix the state’s economy.

Kasich is sched­uled to appear Sun­day on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” then head on a mul­ti­state tour to pro­mote tax breaks, invest­ment incen­tives and a bill open­ing Ohio’s pub­lic lands — includ­ing state parks — to oil and gas drilling, which he believes can help get the state back on its feet.

“This isn’t about an assault on any­body,” Kasich said dur­ing an event at his offi­cial res­i­dence in Bex­ley to tout pas­sage of the state’s nearly $56 bil­lion, two-year bud­get. “This is about mak­ing things work in Ohio and not being a god-darned 1920s state that is falling behind and get­ting crushed economically.”

Kasich lamented what he sees as increas­ing par­ti­san­ship in the coun­try, even as he sin­gled out the party that opposes his efforts. He also said he still has hope he can con­vince Democ­rats of the value of his ideas. “I’ll charm them,” he said after his rant against their fail­ure to sup­port the Repub­li­cans’ budget.

Lag­ging in pop­u­lar­ity polls, Kasich has presided over the pas­sage of sig­nif­i­cant pri­va­ti­za­tion efforts, cuts to schools and local gov­ern­ments, and an over­haul of the state’s col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing over­haul that have prompted a labor-backed back­lash against him.

Kasich had par­tic­u­larly harsh words for Pro­gres­sO­hio, a lib­eral pol­icy group that has filed suits against his admin­is­tra­tion alleg­ing vio­la­tions of the state con­sti­tu­tion with one of his Cab­i­net appoint­ments and his effort to pri­va­tize the state’s eco­nomic devel­op­ment office. The group also filed suit after a lock­down of the State­house dur­ing col­lec­tive bar­gain­ing rallies.

“Dri­ving Mark Kvamme out of the Depart­ment of Devel­op­ment was one of the most irre­spon­si­ble things I’ve ever seen in my polit­i­cal career,” he said. “Why’d they do that? Con­sti­tu­tional issues? I know the press can tend to be a lit­tle cyn­i­cal. Maybe you ought to think about that, why they did it. It’s dis­rupt­ing, and we’re not going to let them dis­rupt the agenda of help­ing Ohio recover.”

The group’s chal­lenge to Kvamme’s appoint­ment noted opin­ions by the state attor­ney gen­eral and an opin­ion of the bipar­ti­san Leg­isla­tive Ser­vice Com­mis­sion that Cab­i­net appointees need to be res­i­dents and reg­is­tered vot­ers of the state. Kvamme was a res­i­dent of Cal­i­for­nia when he was appointed.

“What’s hap­pen­ing in Ohio now is if you lose you sue or you make a pub­lic records request, slow down the process,” Kasich said. “It’s all in the pur­suit of self­ish power.”

Pro­gres­sO­hio exec­u­tive direc­tor Brian Rothen­berg said Kasich needs to be reminded how democ­racy works.

“I guess we’re all get­ting used to these polit­i­cal tantrums,” Rothen­berg said. “The fact of the mat­ter is he swore to uphold the whole con­sti­tu­tion, not just the parts he likes.”

After the group’s law­suit, Kasich appointed Kvamme to a non-Cabinet advi­sory posi­tion within his admin­is­tra­tion and named a new devel­op­ment director.

Posted by AP News on Jul 2 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.