Who is the Best Candidate for Governor of Ohio Position in 2010?

The 2010 Governor race in Ohio is coming down to just two players, incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland, and Republican John Kasich. According to "RealClearPolitics.com," as of today they are close in more than a few of the major polls with Mr. Kasich ahead by 10.7% averaged across the six polls that matter to Ohio politicians.

Some Labor Unions in Ohio are backing Strickland as they know he will continue work of bringing jobs to Ohio. They also believe in this administrations plans to revive our economy. One big plan was revealed in a press release that the Governor is working to get a passenger train system built between Cleveland, Columbus, and Cincinnati. The program is being called the "3C" initiative. I am really happy to hear this may finally happen as I have been hearing about it for at least the past 25 years. This would provide jobs for Ohioans!

In his 2010 State of the State Address Strickland promised to bring more alternative energy and technology jobs to Ohio during his next term. The problem is that many jobs have already been lost across the state over the past four years due in part the economic crisis that we are emerging from. If this administration can follow through with its plans there will be more investment in Ohio businesses as a result of that the number of jobs should rise.

Governor Ted Strickland has been working hard to bring renewable and alternative energy business into Ohio and one of the founding projects coming to fruition is an alliance with Libbey Glass in Toledo Ohio. The company makes glass panels for solar manufacturing companies, a few of which are in the U.S. One of them is called First Solar situated just down the road from Toledo in Perrysburg Ohio. These and many other new "Green Jobs" are moving Ohio forward and as a result they are helping improve our economy.

My wife and I were both unemployed from technical manufacturing jobs so we have been directly affected by the way our government views the labor market, this is evident by how they vote when it comes to labor issues. Each company is feeling the pressure from foreign competition and has had to fight off closures if the economy does not turn around.

There is no change either of us will be recalled since they are still downsizing. The jobs we had were eliminated while big manufacturing contracts go overseas due to NAFTA and other legislation that makes it hard for Ohio companies to compete globally.

From my perspective these problems are not going away anytime soon, but if our Governor works toward better solutions for long term recovery instead of instant gratification then our prospects would improve immediately. So it appears to us that the "Big Picture" planning is not really taking place the way it could.

On the other hand we have Republican John Kasich, and he has quite a lengthy history in Ohio politics. He was a member of the Ohio State Senate for four years. He went on to the House of Representatives for nine consecutive terms! Then things changed for Mr. Kasich as he took a job and held it for eight years at the now defunct Lehman Brothers Financial. There he was "Managing Director" and according to the Geauga County Democrats website, his last financial statement (that was was made public) shows he made over $1.3 Million in 2008.

This income came from numerous sources including Lehman and others including $265,000 as a Fox News Contributor. Lehman paid him almost $590,000 with $432,000 of that as a bonus! He also had $165,000 income from speaking engagements, most interestingly he reported over $140,000 from investments and interest, and a $45,000 fellowship from Ohio State University. He also received around $30,000 pretax benefit package including health care. His book royalties are listed as $51.

So my Question is why would someone who was recently making so much money per year would want a job that pays $139,000 per year. There must be some underlying reason why someone with his background would want this relatively low paying job. Another fact is he has written three books two have been on the New York Times Best Seller list! So there is little chance he is doing it for the money.

I even considered that perhaps Mr. Kasich is doing this just for the great health insurance benefits but then I learned that Governor Strickland chooses to pay for his own health insurance and he returns the equivalent value back to the state that his paycheck has in it for health coverage, so far he has given back over $31,000.

One thing Kasich has going for him is that he is a Republican and the general feeling in Ohio right now is that we are done with Democrats again (for now!) Also he does have skills and knowledge in the balancing of a budget.

Sources:
To read a text version of Governor Strickland's "State of the State Address" for 2010 please go here:
www.governor.ohio.gov/Default.aspx

Kasich Financial information gleaned from his 2008 tax return which he made public of his own accord.
geaugadems.org/index.php

Polling data can be viewed at:
www.realclearpolitics.com