DaytonDailyNews.com

MORAINE — Montgomery County Republicans were energized for Super Tuesday and the election season by former U.S. Rep. John Kasich during their annual Lincoln Day Dinner fundraiser Monday night.

Kasich, the headliner for the event at The Mandalay Banquet Center, predicted that John McCain of Arizona would come away the victor in today's GOP primaries and caucuses in 24 states across the nation, though that still might not win McCain the delegates needs to secure the Republican nomination.

"Just like this year's football season, we just don't know how it's going to come out," Kasich said.

He also hinted that he might return to politics and run for governor. He also touched on a range of topics, including issuing a challenge about Hurricane Katrina.

"We have to get back to basics," said Kasich, who spent four years as state senator before serving in Congress from 1983 to 2001.

Now the host of Heartland with John Kasich on the FOXNews network, he said he's still waiting for someone "to take responsibility" for the mishandling of Katrina.

Kasich's main focus, though, was Ohio.

"We've lost thousands of jobs under the new governor. We're in a death spiral," he said.

Kasich, who spoke for nearly 45 minutes, called for the abolition of the "death tax" — which is levied on estates valued at over $338,333, with 80 percent of the revenue going to local governments and the other 20 percent to the state general fund — and strengthening school choice programs in Ohio.

"It's increasingly looking like I'm going to run," he told the crowd that county party Chairman Gary Gantt estimated at about 500.

After his speech, however, Kasich said he has been putting out feelers throughout Ohio but has set no time table to determine if we would run.

Other event speakers were Ohio House Speaker Jon Husted, R-Kettering; Ohio Supreme Court Justices Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and Maureen O'Conner; and U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville.