Ohio 2010 Governor Race- After the 2nd Debate?

In the race for governor of the 7th largest state in the Union and usually the required state to win the White House, it is a tight race between Ted Strickland and John Kasich. Ted Strickland is the current governor, which he has held for one term, and he is the Democrat in the race. John Kasich is a former House of Representative from central Ohio in the 1990s for 10 years and he is the Republican in the race.

Governor Strickland has been fighting from behind in the polls for most of this race against Rep. Kasich because he is fighting the anti-incumbant atmosphere, which exist in the country at this time. Governor Strickland has had to fight against a high unemployment rate, but that has been an issue for longer than he has been governor. Ohio is a state that has the 2nd most auto industry jobs, only 2nd to Michigan, which is a large explanation for the high unemployment. It is also a fact that the whole country has a high unemployment rate since we have been going through the worst economy times since the Great Depression in the 1903s. Ohio job market has also been hurt by outsourcing of jobs overseas since it has a lot of industrial jobs, like auto, steel, tires, and other industries. Ohio has been loosing jobs for a while and it needs to turn around soon.

Governor Strickland was able to finally get education reform accomplished in the state of Ohio.  It was an accomplish especially since four times the Ohio Supreme Court had ruled that the way Ohio schools were funded was unconstitutional. Governor Strickland has fought with Congress to get trade deals fairer to Ohio and the rest of the country, especially with the issue over Chinese currency manipulation. Strickland has been able to help foster the growing alternative energy industries across Ohio, including a mandate for energy companies to have at least 25% from renewable energy sources by 2025. Ohio has also started to get back some of the jobs that were lost from the auto industry crisis that Governor Strickland went to Washington to get help saving the auto insurance, which right now is paying off with returning jobs and recovering auto industry.

Former Rep. Kasich is coming from 10 years off from his stint as a House of Representative member for 10 years. He was in Congress when the Federal budget was balanced. Since his days as a Representative, he has worked for Fox News as a commentator. He has also worked for Wall Street, including a manager with the failed company Lehman Brothers. One of the unknowns about John Kasich is how much money he made in his time with Lehman Brothers, especially from the $480 Million he invested for the Ohio Pension Fund that was all lost when Lehman went under. He also sat on boards of companies in Ohio that made the decision to move their workforce overseas.

Kasich claims he will cut taxes and get more done, which is hard to do. Kasich has already said he wants to get rid of the whole Ohio income tax, but has not talked about what he will replace it with during this campaign. The Ohio Income Tax accords for a large chuck of the Ohio state budget so it would be difficult to make up. It is also difficult went major cuts had to be made to the budget in the past couple of years even with the income tax revenue at the levels it already is currently.

In the end, it is a race between the Democratic Incumbent Ted Strickland who has had the bad luck of being governor during this terrible economic downturn in this country versus the Republican challenger that claims that he can do it better. The Anti-Wall Street challenger from Wall Street is anti-taxes, anti-big government, anti- spending, anti- stimulus, anti- 3C rail, anti- Strickland's education reform, and anti-alternative energy mandates. Unfortunately in some people's opinion, Challenger Kasich has not given enough specifics on what he will do difficult. It can be said that argued that Governor Strickland could have done better, but when comparing to the challenger, the choice seems to be clear: Stay with Governor Strickland for another 4 years.