John Kasich is an odd duck.
The Ohio governor, on the verge of launching a bid for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, is still running around the country bragging about accepting an expansion of Medicaid in his state that was made possible by President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. During a Christian Science Monitor lunch with reporters on Friday, Kasich touted his championing of state-mandated racial preferences in the hiring of government contractors — he called them “set-asides.”
Kasich said that everything should be on the table in negotiations to pass immigration reform, even a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, although he’s deeply troubled by the notion of rewarding lawbreakers with amnesty. “I don’t like it when people ditch the line,” the governor said. At least for now, Kasich is running as a pseudo-Bulworth candidate, appearing to care less than his potential competitors about whether his record and rhetoric are viable with GOP primary voters.
“I’m going to talk about the things that I’m concerned about. And, if it works, great. And if it doesn’t work, I may still have to realize my dream of being on the PGA tour,” Kasich said. “I’m a retail guy; I’m going to work hard and communicate as best as I can … Either I got it or I don’t.”
Kasich, who turns 63 this month, played a key role in the last period of serious budgeting in U.S. history — the balanced Clinton budgets of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. The former House Budget Committee Chairman was famous in the 1990s for taking a knife to big government programs. He was a big proponent of welfare reform legislation signed by President Clinton.
As governor since 2010, he has aggressively cut taxes and regulations. This year Kasich proposed slashing personal income taxes another 23 percent. On foreign policy, the hawkish Kasich has excoriated Obama’s emerging nuclear arms deal with Iran, and criticized the president for waffling on Russian aggression and weakening U.S. national security.
“I’m really surprised that we have not been able to gather tougher sanctions against [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. I think we just have not had the tough talk or the action that we need,” Kasich said.
The field of Republican primary candidates is crowded and deep with formidable politicians. But Republican insiders in Ohio say Kasich is not to be underestimated — although some question whether the Ohioan can break through with his support for Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion hanging around his neck.
Kasich’s leadership in the move to increase taxpayer-subsidized health care for the poor, combined with his fiscal conservatism, might be a recipe for success in a swing state like Ohio, but it could be a difficult sell in early primary states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. The key to Kasich’s potential and ability to overcome those challenges, say his fans, is his blunt manner and ability to channel voter frustration with Washington.
“He speaks to the people that want straight talk and are sick of politics as usual,” said a Republican operative based in Ohio. “They don’t mind his rough edge because they’re upset and want someone as upset as they are.”
Here’s a sampling of what Kasich’s penchant for straight talk delivered on Friday during the Christian Science Monitor Lunch:
• “I just don’t look at politics in the traditional way. I think it’s about answering people’s concerns.”
• “For the first time in Ohio we’re going to actually meet our set-aside provisions. We’ll do better than 15 percent set-aside in contracts for minorities.”
• “I expanded Medicaid to bring dollars home … I’ve got money I can bring home to Ohio. It’s my money. There’s no money in Washington; it’s my money. It’s the money of the people who live in my state.”
• “You don’t have to compromise your principles to be a compromiser.”
• “I am for marriage defined as between a man and a woman. If the Supreme Court changes that, those changes have to be respected. And, I have a number of friends who are gay, okay? I like them; they know how I feel about this. But I’m fine. They want me to go [to their wedding,] I care about them, I’ll go.”
• “On the path to citizenship, or legalization, I think they could be sort of one and the same or maybe — here’s what I would say: I take nothing off the table when it comes to a negotiation like this. I would prefer not to have a path to citizenship, or legalization — which is different, I think. And, the reason why I wouldn’t prefer a path to citizenship is, I’ve tried to tell my daughters, you know, you don’t ditch the line to get Taylor Swift tickets. You stand in line, if you didn’t get there at the right time, you don’t get them. … At the same time, my view is, you’re going to have to sit down and negotiate this, and I’m open to where we go on this, preferring not to go to citizenship. But I wouldn’t take anything off the table.”
Disclosure: The author’s wife works as an advisor to Scott Walker.
