Editorial: Kasich clearly best choice for Ohio

When Gov. John Kasich helped botch a Republican effort to reform collective bargaining for public employees three years ago, Democrats were convinced they could recapture Ohio’s top office in 2014.

But they failed to find a candidate who could challenge Kasich, with Democrat Ed FitzGerald’s campaign disintegrating before our eyes this summer. Not only has FitzGerald failed to make a case for firing Kasich, he’s failed to show he can even run a campaign, let alone our great state.

Kasich is a complicated Republican to be sure. He delights conservatives with his anti-tax crusades and obsession to run government far more like a business than many on the right would consider. He confounds them by supporting an expansion of Medicaid to cover more Ohioans with medical insurance, a key aspect of President Obama’s healthcare plan that most Republicans, including Kasich, detest.

Instead of rejecting $2.5 billion million in federal money, Kasich found a way around conservative roadblocks to show compassion in the form of expanded medical care, especially new funds for badly needed drug addiction treatments.

To us, this shows he knows how to govern, lead and help people, not bow to extremists in both parties who often defy common sense and forget compassion in their zeal.

Take the current drama over Common Core, a decision Ohio made years ago to set new higher education standards for our children. Kasich not only opposes reversing course in the middle of the program’s rollout; he quickly defends it from right-wing myths fueling much of the discord. Meanwhile, conservative lawmakers have decided to duck a vote until after the election.

Politically, Kasich may be the closest thing to a moderate in Columbus these days, an example of how gerrymandering of political districts has the General Assembly leaning far further right than our state’s population.

We still disagree with Kasich on his outright denial that state cuts to local governments are not forcing local taxes higher or causing harm. He claims many cities are in better shape financially than the state, ignoring the reality that many cities have reduced police and firefighters to balance their budgets.

We would urge Kasich to re-examine local government funding, especially for county seats such as Newark which hosts and operates a countywide municipal court, plows and maintains more lanes of state highways and had the most to gain from collective bargaining reform. They need more help the next four years.

We also don’t give Kasich sole credit for turning around Ohio’s economy. Yes, he’s made some bold moves by lowering taxes, helping small businesses and eliminating the estate tax. But he’s also benefiting from the inevitable upswing following the largest global recession in generations. The jury is still out on these reforms.

What is clear though is that he’s the best choice for governor Nov. 4.