* Press release…

ENDORSEMENT: ILLINOIS SENATE REPUBLICAN LEADER CHRISTINE RADOGNO HEADS KASICH FOR AMERICA’S ILLINOIS TEAM

Leader Radogno to serve as Illinois State Chairman
Dan Cronin, Dave Syverson, Ed Sullivan, Ron Sandack, Tom Demmer, David Harris, Randy Frese, Jim Schultz, Pat Brady and Sean Morrison to serve as State Co-Chairs
Team includes seven sitting IL legislators, the former Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, three county party chairmen

Today the Kasich for America campaign announced that Illinois State Senate Republican Leader Christine Radogno will chair the Illinois presidential campaign for Ohio Governor John Kasich. In all, eighteen officeholders and party officials announced their endorsement of Kasich today, including seven current state legislators, the former Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, three county party chairmen, and current and former public officials from across the state. […]

Said Leader Radogno, “As governor, John Kasich took over a state that was dying. Before he took office, Ohio had lost more than 350,000 private sector jobs, faced an $8 billion projected budget hole, and businesses were fleeing to other states. In four short years, he helped turn his state around, and under his watch, Ohio has created 347,000 private sector jobs, amassed a $2 billion surplus, and by cutting taxes by more than $5 billion, Ohio became business-friendly again. As a leader in a state very similar to Ohio, I understand the significance of his accomplishments. Kasich’s record of success serves as a model for other Midwestern states, and it is little wonder that 62% of Ohioans approve of the job he’s doing.”

* Let’s look at some Kasich history via an October, 2011 story in the very conservative National Review…

Kasich’s reforms, like Gov. Scott Walker’s in Wisconsin, have rattled government workers, who for decades have enjoyed cushy retirement and health-care benefits. Senate Bill 5 “is all about fairness,” asking state employees to contribute 10 percent of their salaries toward their guaranteed pensions and pay 15 percent of their health-care costs, Kasich says.

The bill also outlaws public-sector strikes, bans binding arbitration, and gives cities and school boards bargaining flexibility. Schoolteachers will be given merit pay, not guaranteed automatic pay increases. Ohio’s 360,000 government workers, like their peers in Wisconsin, have revolted. Thousands of them stormed the capitol when the legislation was passed by the GOP-controlled legislature in March — a sea of bright union T-shirts.

Those winter rallies were only the beginning. Once Kasich signed the bill, progressives pounced. Activists canvassed the state, petitioning for repeal. We Are Ohio, a potpourri of lefty-types, led the months-long campaign. According to state law, if 230,000 signatures were collected and certified by the secretary of state, a referendum would be triggered. By mid-July, over 1.3 million Ohioans had signed. Senate Bill 5 was suspended. And “Issue 2,” a question of whether to keep the legislation, was added to the ballot.

Senate Bill 5’s midsummer stall was a blow to Kasich. His approval rating at the time, according to a Quinnipiac University poll, sunk to 35 percent. Still, Kasich was buoyed that same month by the passage of his budget, which closed the state’s $8 billion budget gap without raising taxes. But Kasich knew that beyond the budget, his entire economic agenda remained jeopardized by “Issue 2.”And with Quinnipiac’s July survey showing 56 percent of Ohioans favoring repeal, disaster loomed.

A month later, Kasich threw a curveball to the unions, which have long portrayed him as the bogeyman of Ohio politics. In a press conference at the capitol, he softened his approach and invited union leaders to “come to the table” and “talk” about potential “ways to reach an agreement.” Sensing Kasich’s political vulnerability, union brass ignored the offer, telling Republicans almost immediately that full repeal of Senate Bill 5 would be a prerequisite to any negotiations. Kasich, undeterred, decided to make his case across the state.

* The unpopular Kasich got his clock cleaned…

Ohio voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected the law limiting the bargaining abilities of more than 350,000 teachers, firefighters, police officers and other public workers. More than 61 percent voted against the measure promoted by Republican Gov. John Kasich. Turnout was the highest ever for an off-year election in Ohio and poll numbers show voters rejected the law by wide margins in nearly every part of the state.

* So, what did Kasich do? Well, for one, he wised up and extended an olive branch to the trade unions…

Standing with a crowd of carpenters to accept their endorsement, Ohio Governor John Kasich acknowledged that it wasn’t easy for union members to back a Republican.

“But we’ve gotten to know each other over time,” Kasich said in Columbus, two weeks before winning re-election in November [of 2014]. “For too long, there’s been a disconnect between people like me and organized labor.” […]

After the repudiation of the Ohio law, he said that “the people have spoken” and took a less confrontational approach. His support for development initiatives, including $1.5 billion in debt backed by Ohio Turnpike tolls for infrastructure, won some union support for his re-election.

Those initiatives will mean billions in wages and benefits in coming years, said Matthew Szollosi, executive director of the 91,000-member Affiliated Construction Trades Ohio union.

“He’s listened,” Szollosi said. “He’s learned a lot about us. Our leaders have learned a lot about him. And I think the relationship has grown close.”

Resentment remains over the bargaining law: The Ohio AFL-CIO backed Kasich’s Democratic opponent last year. Yet Szollosi’s group gave the governor’s campaign the maximum $12,156 in 2013, and Kasich also won the endorsement of engineers and carpenters unions, as well as the Ohio Laborers’ District Council.

And people wonder why I’ve been shaking my head at Gov. Rauner’s refusal to propose a capital bill.

Sheesh, man, this ain’t rocket science.

* Kasich is still not exactly a friend to public employee unions…

However, just before this Memorial Day weekend, the Governor issued an executive order stripping away union rights from nearly 10,000 independent home health-care and in-home child-care workers. The move undoes a law implemented by former Democratic Governor Ted Strickland that extended the ability to bargain with the state to those overlooked and underpaid sectors. Unions that used to represent those workers in Ohio, including the AFSCME and the SEIU are calling it a “war on caregivers,” warning that it will discourage people from pursuing those careers.

Somewhat ironically, Kasich credited the success of the President’s Affordable Care Act — which he opposes and wants repealed — as part of his rationale for repealing those union rights. He said would have repealed his predecessor’s law earlier, but held off out of concern that those independent workers would lose the health insurance provided by their unions. But “since that time,” he wrote, “health insurance has become widely available through other means, such as the federal health insurance exchanges.”

But keep in mind that the trade unions are historically more conservative than public employee unions, and smart, moderate Republicans try to work with those unions.

Gov. Rauner has so far refused to do this.

I suppose you could say that Rauner learned a little when he stopped calling for so-called “right-to-work” laws, but he’s still demanding that collective bargaining rights should be gutted and he wants repeal of the state’s prevailing wage laws.

* “Right-to-work” is popular if you word polling questions just so, as a recent poll of southern Illinoisans by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows…

Some states have passed right-to-work or open shop laws that say workers have the right to hold their jobs in a unionized workplace, whether they join the labor union or not. If you were asked to vote on such a law, would you vote for it or against it? (If undecided the interviewer probed “which way are you leaning?”)

Response

Percent (n=401)

Vote for 53.4%

Lean for 2.0%

Lean against 1.7%

Vote against 36.2%

Undecided (not read) 3.5%

Other/don’t know (not read) 3.2%

Meh.

The point is, Rauner withdrew it for good reason. It wasn’t going to pass and it probably wouldn’t have been backed by the public once it was explained.

Now if he would only take more steps in that direction.

* Oh, and by the way, the Tribune had a little brief on another one of Kasich’s Illinois backers today…

DuPage County Board Chairman Dan Cronin reported a $25,000 contribution from the national fund of the plumbers/pipefitters union.

Cronin leads his county so well because he is so inclusive. Same for Kasich in Ohio.

* For crying out loud, learn, man. Instead of constantly beating on all the unions, how about focusing on obtainable, doable reforms, and focus like a laser on solving this budget mess? Kasich did that and he eliminated his state’s deficit.