“I think it’s just pathetic,” Kasich said of Strickland’s Wednesday speech labeling Kasich “Wall Street to the core.” Kasich’s comments to reporters came after a 15-minute speech in which he didn’t mention’s Strickland’s verbal assault.
“It shows they (Strickland campaign) have problems,” said Kasich. “That they’re worried about being re-elected.” Ohio has lost more than 400,000 jobs since Strickland took office in 2007 and “they’re trying to get people not to focus on how they’ve performed,” said Kasich.
Strickland also said he thinks Kasich “has not been fully forthcoming with the truth about what he may have done in terms of pitching Lehman to Ohio’s pension systems.”
Kasich, a former Columbus-area U.S. House member, answered “no” when asked if he had done more than try to persuade two state pension funds to invest with Lehman Brothers in 2002 when he was a managing director of the firm.
“This has nothing to do with Lehman Brothers. This has to do with the fact they want to change the subject,” Kasich said. He worked for Lehman for about eight years, leaving in 2008 shortly after the firm collapsed. The collapse has been blamed for contributing to the nation’s economic meltdown.
In his speech, Kasich, accompanied here by his wife Karen and their twins, Emma and Reese, 10, said Ohio taxes are too high and regulations on business too rigid.
“Sometimes I think it would be easier to break into a museum and steal a great painting than it is to get a (business) license ... in the state,” said Kasich, also joined by Auditor Mary Taylor, his lieutenant governor running mate.
Lis Smith, Strickland’s campaign spokeswoman, said in an e-mail that Kasich’s “latest stunt reeks of desperation.”
“This race is about whose values the next governor of Ohio will represent,” said Smith. “Ted is not going to give Ohio over to Wall Street values without a fight.”
Kasich’s stop here came on the second day of a three-day, 13-county campaign bus trip through mostly Republican-friendly territory.
Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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