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Cleveland
Plain Dealer
Assessing
the politics of JobsOhio:
Analysis
CLEVELAND,
Ohio -- The Democratic
furor over JobsOhio can be summed up in two words: wishful thinking.
The
party's only announced
candidate for governor, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, is
running on
an anti-corruption image. That strategy works best if it addresses a
weakness
in his opponent. And as Nixonian as he and his allies make Gov. John
Kasich out
to be, there has been nothing criminally scandalous in the Republican
incumbent's first term.
So
Democrats hope to turn JobsOhio,
Kasich's signature economic development program, into some sort of
political
bogeyman for 2014. As a Columbus Dispatch columnist noted Sunday, all
of the
elements are in place: "$100 million annually in taxpayer money
converted
for private use; little public accountability on how it is spent;
corporations,
businesses and their lobbyists lining up with hands out; a governor
needing to
raise $20-plus million for his re-election."
Those
scenarios assume the worst
about JobsOhio, something that is not hard to do given its secretive
nature.
Kasich
and the
Republican-controlled General Assembly set up the agency as a private
nonprofit,
arguing that it must operate free of the slow-moving state bureaucracy.
Democrats and others -- most notably State Auditor Dave Yost,
ostensibly a
member of Kasich's GOP team -- assert that JobsOhio's books should be
subject
to full public review. (The agency is subject to other public
disclosure
rules.)
Republicans
reinforced their
position last week by passing legislation that Kasich is expected to
sign
Tuesday. Democrats once again ratcheted up their outrage machine. But
suspicion
alone is not enough to bolster the narrative that FitzGerald's campaign
desires.
Consider
the JobsOhio political
implications for all involved.
Kasich:
The election is 17 months
away. But if it were this week, the governor's closing argument would
be some
variation of the "Are you better off today?" cliche. And he could
make it without ever uttering the term "JobsOhio."
Ohioans
were frustrated in 2010,
when Kasich talked repeatedly of the 400,000 jobs the state had lost
under
Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland. Ohio's unemployment rate peaked early
that year
at 10.6 percent. Today it's 7 percent.
If
the economy takes a turn for the
worse, Democrats might be able to exploit scuttled or stalled
headquarters
projects for Diebold and American Greetings. Early in his term, Kasich
championed financial incentives designed to keep both companies in
Ohio.
Green-based Diebold has canceled its plans for a new home in the
Akron-Canton
area. Brooklyn's American Greetings has put on hold plans to build anew
in
Westlake as its controlling family attempts a buyout.
But
if the recovery holds, the
nuances of JobsOhio will matter little to voters. A recent poll from
Quinnipiac
University found that a plurality of Ohio voters -- 49 percent --
approved of
Kasich's handling of the economy.
The
poll also found that Ohioans
were more optimistic about the state's economy than they had been in
years.
FitzGerald
and the Democrats: The
economy is the strongest argument in favor of Kasich's re-election. So
it would
make sense that Democrats are throwing darts in that direction, even if
it
didn't help play to one of FitzGerald's strengths…
Read
the rest of the article at the
Cleveland Plain Dealer
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