Subject: RE: APPROVE: Indiana-Ohio press call script for 10AM
From: "Crystal, Andy" <[email-masked]>
To: "Helmstetter, TJ" <[email-masked]>, RR2 <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2016 18:52:40 -0700

Some eds from us below, thanks
________________________________
From: Helmstetter, TJ
Sent: Monday, April 25, 2016 8:55 PM
To: RR2
Subject: APPROVE: Indiana-Ohio press call script for 10AM

 CHAIRMAN DAVID A. PEPPER

Good morning everyone.

As Ohioans, we’ve been watching as our governor John Kasich has traipsed all over the country, holding town halls, talking with reporters, eating a lot of stuff...

Keep in mind, these are all things he’s been reticent to do here in his own state. Well maybe except for the eating.

And while Kasich’s ineptitude on the campaign trail may be amusing to some, as Ohioans we don’t find it all that funny. It has been 197 195 <—not sure the exact number here, but if you go based on the 177 day number they were fact checked on it ends up being 195 tomorrow days and counting that John Kasich has spent outside of Ohio, neglecting his job as Governor. Each day that Kasich is out of state, campaigning for president, it’s costing Ohio taxpayers -- to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Now we can’t be sure exactly how much the taxpayers have already chipped in for Kasich’s campaign. PolitiFact Ohio estimates it’s already reached nearly half a million dollars. When it’s all said and done it could cost many times more. And we’ll never know precisely because the Kasich administration refuses to reveal the amount.

That’s right -- the taxpayers are footing the bill for Kasich’s campaign, but his administration refuses to tell us how many public dollars are being spent to support his presidential ambitions.

Beyond taxpayers funds, while Kasich is away on the campaign trail, Ohio’s job growth has trailed the national average for 39 straight months. And there are more Ohio children living in poverty today than there were in the height of the recession in 2008.

Kasich could take a different route here.

He could be transparent -- even Chris Christie was more forthcoming in New Jersey. Kasich is choosing to hide from Ohio taxpayers.

He could have his campaign reimburse the state -- that’s what Scott Walker did in Wisconsin. Kasich is choosing to make Ohio taxpayers pay.

We are calling on Kasich to stop stonewalling reporters’ requests for this information and then have his campaign pay back every single penny owed to the taxpayers.

But it’s not only the Ohio Democratic Party who are calling on Kasich to do this. Just this weekend the Toledo Blade editorial board wrote, “The Kasich campaign should pay this secret bill. Not us.”

They also wrote, “States typically provide round-the-clock protection to their governors and our state assigns it to the governor, no matter who the governor is, as a matter of law. But when the cost goes up because of something the governor is doing that does not relate to governing Ohio (running for president), Ohioans have an absolute right to know the precise cost. They also have a right to be reimbursed for that cost.”

We do not begrudge the governor his need for safety and security. But as the Blade notes, this is an activity that does not relate to governing the state of Ohio.

Add to that the fact that Kasich has been out of state doing this activity for nearly 200 days since last March.

This is no small expense.

And we’ll leave aside the fact that Kasich has been continuing to collect his taxpayer-funded salary and benefits, despite the fact he’s spent more than half of the past year out of state on the campaign trail.

I’ll leave you with this final anecdote -- when Kasich ran for re-election in 2014, he ran an ad where he was standing on the fifty-yard line of Ohio Stadium.

He told us that it was “halftime in Ohio… and the best is yet to come.”

Well I’m going to guess that Ohioans didn’t wager that Kasich would be spending that great second half in places like New Hampshire, New York and today in Indiana for a fundraiser.

And I’m also going to guess that Ohioans didn’t think they’d be paying hundreds of thousands of dollars so that Kasich could campaign in New Hampshire, New York and Indiana -- all fine states, just not the one he was elected to serve.

All of this out of state campaigning and fundraising , what does Kasich have to show for? To secure the Republican nomination, he would have to win 162% of the remaining delegates. It’s mathematically impossible and irresponsible to his constituents in Ohio to continue.

Kasich still needs 24 23 delegates to match Marco Rubio- and he dropped out over a month ago! There is zero reason why Kasich should still be in the race.

It’s time for Kasich to do the right thing, be transparent about this spending and reimburse the taxpayers of Ohio.

Overall, Kasich’s governorship has been a failure, and his policies have been a disaster for Ohio. Given the opportunity, Kasich would be a disaster for the rest of our country too.

CHAIRMAN JOHN ZODY

Thank you, David. And thanks to everyone for hopping on today’s call.

Now I’m sure David can agree with me here when I say this – John Kasich is trying to pull a fast one on Hoosiers.

First, Kasich and Ted Cruz announced they entered an unusual agreement to save their failing campaigns, by dividing their efforts in upcoming primaries, to prevent Trump from clinching more victories.

Kasich decided to bail on the primary process, everyday Hoosiers, and campaigning in Indiana.

Less than 48 hours later, the agreement is already falling apart. Just yesterday, in reference to Indiana voters, Kasich said, “ They ought to vote for me. I’m not campaigning in Indiana and he’s not campaigning in these other states, that’s all. It’s not a big deal.”

Tell that to the millions of Hoosiers who will vote in the Indiana primary next week. Their votes are equally deserving of Kasich’s attention.

To top it off, Kasich is still holding a closed-door fundraising event with insiders here in Indiana despite ceding the state to Trump and Cruz. In other words, Kasich is happy to ask for Hoosier dollars, just not Hoosier votes.

Perhaps he's afraid Hoosiers will think his record as Ohio’s governor is eerily similar to our unpopular governor, Mike Pence.

Like John Kasich’s record of worker wages to plummeting stagnating in the state of Ohio, Mike Pence has allowed Indiana’s per capita income to fall to 38th in the nation. What’s worse, Pence even repealed the state’s common construction wage laws – forcing Hoosiers to work more for less.

Similar to John Kasich, Mike Pence has brought his political agenda to the state’s education system. It took a public relations crisis for Pence to demolish the state’s ISTEP exam, and when there was an opportunity to opt in for a grant to establish a statewide Pre-K system – Pence said no.

And finally, Mike Pence – just like John Kasich – has prioritized social issues ahead of Hoosier commonsense. From signing the economically damaging Religious Freedom Restoration Act to signing one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the nation, Pence has made sure that at no matter what cost to the state’s economy, his agenda will come before everything else.

So while John Kasich is trying to sell himself as a moderate for the Republican Party, the reality is that Kasich is just like Mike Pence and the other far-right conservative politicians who have prioritized their out-of-touch agendas at the expense of everyday families. Kasich is no moderate, but it’s a testament to just how extreme Cruz and Trump are that they make him look like one.

But let’s be clear – this extreme right-wing field  of Trump, Cruz, and Kasich have been a long time in the making. They are the natural result of years of extreme ideology and dangerous, divisive rhetoric coming from Republicans.

Hoosiers have already suffered from the out-of-touch agenda of Mike Pence. They don’t need to hear from another empty suit politician like John Kasich and I guess they won’t. But as Cruz and Trump continue to spew their extremist, hateful rhetoric across the state, I am confident that more Hoosiers will wake up to what today’s Republican Party has become and realize how important it is that we elect a Democratic President, Governor, and Senator in Indiana.

Thank you.