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Kasich-Taylor team debuts with blast at Strickland; Dem leader fires back

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By William Hershey, Staff Writer Updated 10:34 AM Friday, January 15, 2010

COLUMBUS - The John Kasich-Mary Taylor Republican tag team debuted Thursday, Jan. 14, with a withering critique of incumbent Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland and a pledge to put Ohioans back to work by cutting taxes and streamlining government.

Even before gubernatorial candidate Kasich introduced Taylor, the current state auditor, as his lieutenant governor running mate at a news conference, state Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern launched a pre-emptive strike. Redfern blasted Kasich’s pledge to phase out the state income tax as “kooky, nutty, bizarre, without merit.”

Unclear after the heated rhetoric was how Kasich’s choice of Taylor will affect the GOP ticket and who Strickland will pick for his running mate. Also Thursday, a new Rasmussen Reports poll showed Kasich leading Strickland, 47-40 percent among likely voters.

At the news conference, Taylor hailed a “new day in Ohio. John Kasich and I will approach government in a new way.”

Kasich didn’t answer directly when asked if, as governor, he would have accepted the $8 billion in federal stimulus funds that Ohio received to balance the current budget but took after Strickland.

“If I was in the governor’s office, we wouldn’t be where we are,” said Kasich. “...He (Strickland) put the car in the ditch. I like to say, thank God there’s a ditch or he would have gone over the cliff.”

Strickland has called for more federal help, an idea that Kasich bashed.

“I don’t think going to Washington on your knees with a tin cup begging for somebody else to bail us out is an answer because at some point that ends,” said Kasich, a former Columbus-area U.S. House member.

Redfern’s comments about Kasich’s plan for the state income tax came as a new analysis from the nonpartisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission said phasing out the tax, which provides about 40 percent of general tax revenue, over 10 years would reduce funds by more than $12 billion by fiscal 2020.

Also, Taylor’s decision to join the ticket left Republicans without a candidate for auditor, although state Rep. Seth Morgan, R-Huber Heights, said he’s exploring a run. State GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine said that was an issue for another day.

Redfern, however, thanked the Republicans for “ceding” the office to Democratic candidate David Pepper, a Hamilton County Commissioner.

Political scientist John Green said Taylor, 43, from the Akron suburb of Green, gives Kasich, 57, a link to vote-rich northeastern Ohio and a running mate who has won statewide.

Green, director of the Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said Strickland, from southern Ohio, might want to tap a woman as a running mate but other factors, such as regional balance, could enter in. Strickland campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith said no decision has been made, although several names continue to be mentioned, including Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams and Yvette McGee Brown, a former Franklin County judge.

“The lieutenant governors have an impact at the margin in a close race, but ultimately it’s the gubernatorial candidates who win or lose races,” said Green.

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