MOUNT VERNON — An enthusiastic and vocal crowd of about 200 people gathered
on Public Square on Friday to hear John Kasich, Republican candidate for Ohio
governor, and Mary Taylor, Republican candidate for lieutenant governor.
Tyler Fehrman, who helped organize the event, introduced Chip McConville, assistant
Knox county prosecutor. In turn, McConville introduced Republican elected officials
in attendance. The gathering then heard from State Rep. Margaret Ann Ruhl, State
Sen. Bill Harris and State Sen. Bob Gibbs.
Ruhl spoke about the need to get at least six more Republican members in the
Ohio House of Representatives.
“We need a majority in the House to get the work done that needs to be
done,” she said.
“We are blessed to have the opportunity to elect John Kasich as governor
and Mary Taylor as lieutenant governor of the state of Ohio,” said Harris.
“You know what Ohio needs now?” asked Gibbs. “It needs John
Kasich and Mary Taylor. I say that because Ohio has an $8 billion budget problem
next year. John Kasich, when he was in Congress, he balanced the United States
budget. He’s going to come into Ohio and cut spending and balance the Ohio
budget. That’s what this state needs.”
Kasich arrived with Taylor and his family, all of them looking good for being
at the end of a three-day bus trip around the state. Kasich touched on three
main themes: Jobs, education and family values.
“I want to tell you about what happened this morning,” he told the
crowd. “We were in Wilmington. Wilmington used to be the home of DHL. One
day they said they were leaving, putting 8,000 people out of work. We were down
there today and I’ve got to tell you, their best days are ahead of them.
They’re not ready to give up and they’re not ready to lay down. We
met with them and we left the facility by the back door, and went to the food
bank, where the people who used to have jobs now have to get help from folks
to feed their families. We’re going to put a stop to that.
“The system that rewards hard work is the system that has to be preserved
in America. The value of taking from the hard-working to give to those who don’t
want to work as hard is not an American value that I was raised with. How about
you? In this state we have had the government run by entrenched special interests
for so long that we have government we don’t need, we have services that
are provided in the least efficient way and government has grown too big.
“We need to retrain our workers for these 21st century jobs,” Kasich
added. “We need to have the businesses and technical schools training people
for jobs that exist. And we need to stop putting manufacturing down and we need
to start recognizing the value of agriculture in this state.”
Kasich also said the state needs to invest more in education by giving the schools
the technological tools they need to train children for the 21st century. He
said schoolchildren spend their time in the evening at home using computers and
other means of communication.
“Then they go to school the next morning, and what do they find in their
desk? A textbook,” Kasich said. “Ohio is 47th at investing dollars
in our schools and giving our teachers the tools they need in the classroom.”
In summing up, Kasich said, “We need to take back Ohio and restore jobs
and the values that made the state great.”