Ohio’s first lady blames Kasich for job ills

Frances Strickland blasts Republican governor hopeful at Xenia picnic.

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By Lucas Sullivan, Staff Writer Updated 10:50 PM Saturday, August 28, 2010

XENIA — Ohio’s first lady Frances Strickland partly blamed the country’s 8 million jobs lost in the last three years on her husband’s Republican opponent for governor and those working on Wall Street during a Democratic picnic rally in Xenia on Saturday, Aug. 28.

“What (John Kasich and the Republicans) want you to think about are the jobs lost in Ohio, but what they don’t want us to know is the 8 million jobs lost across the United States,” Strickland said. “All the economists say that that job loss started as a result of the problems on Wall Street, which is where Ted’s opponent has spent the last nine years.”

Kasich was a managing director for Lehman Brothers, a financial services firm that declared bankruptcy.

Strickland then launched into her rendition of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” with her own hook “Let’s keep Ohio movin’, Dems are going four more years.”

Kasich’s campaign fired back, blaming the state’s 10 percent unemployment rate on Gov. Ted Strickland’s “mismanagement.”

“Because of (his) mismanagement, Ohio still has higher unemployment than every neighboring state but Michigan and we’re recovering more slowly,” said Rob Nichols, Kasich’s press secretary. “Relief is coming and John Kasich encourages Ohioans to ... hang in there, because if elected governor in November we’ll be able to reduce spending and begin reducing taxes so we can revive the economy and create jobs.”

While in Xenia, Frances Strickland also stumped for statewide candidates Maryellen O’Shaughnessy, candidate for secretary of state against state Sen. Jon Husted, R-Kettering, and David Pepper, running for state auditor against Dave Yost, the Delaware County prosecutor.

O’Shaughnessy, who if elected would be in charge of the state’s elections, attended the picnic at Shawnee Park with about 250 of the party’s strongest supporters in the county and said the No. 1 issue facing voters in the Dayton area is jobs.

O’Shaughnessy, clerk of courts for Franklin County, criticized Husted for not caring enough about voters, but instead wanting to climb the political ladder.

“Many people like Senator Husted want to use the secretary of state office as a stepping stone for higher office,” she said. “I want to be secretary of state and I have the background in local government to get the job done.”

Husted said it was “silly” for O’Shaughnessy to make such a statement “since she’s run for five or six different offices in the last 10 years.”

“I am committed to being Ohio’s secretary of state and serving this state with honor and integrity,” he said.

Pepper, a Hamilton County commissioner, was campaigning in northeast Ohio and did not attend the rally.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2494 or lsullivan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

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