Quin Hillyer
Former House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich, who former Speaker Newt Gingrich and a number of conservative writers were pushing as a good potential pick for vice president but who the McCain camp appears not to have seriously considered, told the Examiner Wednesday night that he is almost certain to run for governor of Ohio in 2010.
“I’ve been in 50 of the state’s 88 counties so far,” he said, “and I’m not doing it just for laughs. I’m very, very serious about it. Ohio has
significant economic problems… That can’t be fixed with minor little things.”
Kasich said he would call for gradual elimination of the state income tax, for almost immediate elimination of the state inheritance tax and, for education, a dramatic expansion of school choice.
Kasich and an aide were handing out a glossy newsletter for a political organization called “Recharge Ohio,” which will be working in this fall’s campaigns to elect conservatives to office in the state. Kasich is the group’s “honorary chairman,” and such organizations often serve as vehicles for its chairmen to set the groundwork for their own campaigns.
