Over the years, Kasich's tone has changed dramatically, as he’s worked to accomplish his goals and create a national persona as a Trump critic and a promoter of bipartisan compromise.
Kasich launched his campaign in his adopted hometown of Westerville[1] in June 2009 with this message: “We march over time to destroy that income tax that has sucked the vitality out of this state.”
Coming into his first election for governor, Kasich was confident, brash and apparently irritated – as evident in this interview[2] after a speech in Findlay in October 2010.
“I wouldn’t presume to guess my economic program, ok? You’ll know about it when I put it out.”
A few weeks later, he won, but his start was rocky.
This audio from a talk with lobbyists came out a few days after he was elected: “Please leave the cynicism and the political maneuvering at the door. Cause we need you on the bus, and if you’re not on the bus, we will run over you with the bus. And I’m not kidding.”
Then a few weeks after he took office, there was this in a speech to EPA workers[3]: “You ever been stopped by a policeman who was an idiot?”
That, and Kasich’s comment that he was waiting for teachers’ unions to take out full page ads apologizing for what they said about him during the campaign, went over especially poorly when the Republican-dominated legislature passed Senate Bill 5. Kasich supported that public sector collective bargaining reform law that unions furiously and loudly fought, including during his State of the State speech in March 2011[4].
(That was the only
