Taylor receives 'kiss of death' as outbound Kasich confirms his endorsement

Lonely are the petulant who bristle when asked the wrong questions. When Ohio Republicans shun one of their own, like GOP governor candidates are doing when it comes to seeking an endorsement from their term-limited governor John Kasich, is it a kiss of death when he confirms who he has endorsed?

Gov. John Kasich at the Ohio Statehouse.

That seems to be the case with Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor, who has been Kasich's number two partner for going on eight years. Recent reports quoted Taylor saying she hadn't spoken with Kasich in about a year. Taylor told a county Republican party recently that she hasn't spoken with the lame-duck governor, but subsequent reports shows she's been in his presence on numerous occasions, mostly at cabinet meetings in Columbus chaired by Kasich.

As big supporter of President Donald Trump, Taylor, who some Republicans have tagged as lazy and who won't be able to defeat her primary challenger, Attorney General Mike DeWine and his running mate Secretary of State Jon Husted, appears to be distancing herself from Kasich, whose become a reliable Trump critic, to show conservative Buckeye voters she's not as liberal as Kasich has been, especially on accepting expanded Medicaid, a feature of former President Obama's Affordable Care Act.

At a Statehouse event Thursday, reports are that Kasich said he could not recall the last time he talked to Taylor following her recent statement, which some might see as confirmation of Taylor's comment of not really engaging Kasich, who spent most of 2016 out of state campaigning for president. Kasich lost 49 states, winning just one, Ohio, by less than 50 percent of the vote.

"She's been a great teammate ... a great, loyal partner," Kasich said, The Toledo Blade reported.

Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor in the ceremonial
cabinet room in the Ohio Statehouse

Kasich, who returns to New Hampshire, the cite of his biggest victory two years ago, where he came in a distant second to Trump, acknowledged that Taylor has periodically disagreed with his policy positions. Ohio's glib governor on issues he likes to talk about, referred to a the dust up as "a lot of loud voices out there that are on the far right. They don't all like me. That's OK. They didn't want me to expand Medicaid. That's fine."

The author of a book about his second loss at running for president, which he's used to stay in the media's eye even though Trump and Trumpworld has ridiculed him from time to time, said Taylor has a right to be independent. Kasich, who continues to fuel speculation about him running for a third run at the Oval Office in 2020, said he has provided Taylor with advice on running for governor and would be willing to campaign on her behalf of the woman who he says would make a "great governor."

Headlines about no other Republicans rushing to get his endorsement or have him campaign on their behalf, prompted Kasich to say things haven't changed much since he won 86 of 88 counties in his 2014 reelection campaign. "I know that decisions have been made that she wasn't always comfortable with," he said, adding that "She'd (Taylor) express herself and then she'd go out and support the team."

Kasich did win that many counties, but the record from 2014 hows his Democratic rival had imploded and voter turnout at 36 percent was the lowest since World War II. Kasich refused to debate his major party challenger, and when a video of him at a Cleveland Plain dealer acting like a spoiled child, the paper bent to pressure and took down the video shortly after it was posted.

When looked at further, voting data shows Kasich received fewer than one in four registered voters.