JobsOhio, Kasich's unconstitutional political unicorn, lives on with DeWine and Cordray

Memories fade so fast that even the Ohio Democratic Party's consumer-protecting candidate for governor this year forgets that John Kasich's single greatest illegal creation, JobsOhio, was the object of scorn by his fellow Dems in 2011, when an energized Republican legislature rammed it through on the fanciful, unproven belief that privatizing a formerly public development agency would create a sea of good jobs.

Gov. Kasich's political unicorn, JobsOhio,

believed by many to be unconstitutional,

promised to transform Ohio for growth. 

It has a long way to go before that promise

rings true.

Less than two years ago, The Ohio Supreme Court put down a move to challenge the constitutionality of JobsOhio by ruling that a Columbus attorney lacked standing to bring the case before the court.

The attorney cited in the rejection, Victoria Ullmann, argued that use of state liquor profits to fund JobsOhio was unconstitutional, because "any citizen who purchases spirituous liquor in the state is forced to support JobsOhio or travel out of state to make the purchase." JobsOhio leased Ohio's liquor profits through a subsidiary and used the money from that monopoly to leverage bonds that fund JobsOhio, reports said.

Even though Ullmann couldn't show a personal injury at a level that would establish standing, she argued she should qualify under a public right doctrine that would allow the court to hear issues that threaten serious public injury. Contemporaneously, left-leaning advocacy group ProgressOhio wanted a declaratory judgment that JobsOhio was an unconstitutional act.

Former Justice William O'Neill, who left the court this year to run for governor in the Democratic Party primary, dissented, saying that Ullmann had raised an issue that the court should hear.

"The diversion of public funds into a closely held and secret organization for distribution to friends and allies is a truly rare and extraordinary issue worthy of scrutiny by the Supreme Court of Ohio," O'Neill wrote.

At a campaign stop this week in Cleveland, endorsed Democratic candidate for governor Richard Cordray said he would keep JobsOhio, but “shift some direction on it," according to Ideastream.

“We can take JobsOhio and we can focus it, some of it, more on small business in the state,” Cordray said. “And we don’t have to solely be about throwing money at big companies from outside the state coming here and then undercutting the businesses that are already doing the right things here in Ohio," Cordray said.

One insider Republican source told this reporter recently that Democrats have a lot to explain on the turnaround from first opposing JobsOhio in 2011, Kasich's first year in office, to the party's last two candidates for governor who would keep it in tact. Both those candidates, Ed FitzGerald in 2014 and Cordray this year, are both attorneys, so their legal training and a review of where their party was not long ago would inform them that Kasich's political unicorn, alive and well with a future of funds coming to it, is actually unconstitutional and therefore illegal.

The high court can also be pilloried for resorting to a flimsy ruling based on their judgement that certain parties lacked standing to bring the challenge to JobsOhio would allow the entity to operate in full daylight before them, when each justice likely suspects that but for lack of standing, challengers might prevail in their case that it shouldn't exist based on a state constitution that prevents such private efforts to usurp public authority and funding.

Kasich in 2010 ballyhooed JobsOhio, the group he originally planned to chair until the Ohio Constitution stopped him from doing that. But despite all the talk of a privatized economic group that would "move at the speed of business," a catchy slogan Ohio media lapped up like hungry cats lapping up spilled milk, Gov. Kasich prized creation has failed to break even with the national job creation average for 65 straight months. And the jobs JobsOhio does claim credit for are, more than not, minimum wage jobs that pay less than $15 hour, the wage at which average workers can pay their bills without resorting to safety net programs like food stamps and Medicaid, the federal-state program for low income people.

Now that JobsOhio is tied up with bonds that go out decades, and a Republican legislature that will have nothing to do with trimming JobsOhio's wings or authority, it's more than strange that supposedly learned candidates for state CEO like Cordray would embrace this political unicorn when history shows Democrats and sympathetic advocacy groups wanted to kill it in the crib just seven years ago.

2018 DeWine-Kasich Plot Twist

For an Ohio house of cards plot twist, this one might not be so far fetched. If Kasich has his way and Attorney General Mike DeWine succeeds him as governor, Kasich could trade his active endorsement of DeWine for a shot at running the group he had planned to run from the beginning.

Some have wondered whether Kasich's endorsement is worth anything. The recently concluded GOP primary showed that John Kasich is more alone now than maybe at any time in his 40 years in politics. Kasich sidekick and Lt. Gov. during his two terms, Mary Taylor, tried to distance herself as far from her boss as she could. She promised to be so conservative, so much an acolyte of Donald Trump, that she would undo Kasich's second signature accomplishment, expanding Medicaid. Kasich is now withholding his endorsement of DeWine until he and the attorney general have a little chat about the future.

Recall that Kasich campaigned on chairing JobsOhio until he backed down when confronted by a state constitution that prevented him from doing that. When 2019 starts, Kasich won't be governor anymore, so the constitution goes away and he could lead JobsOhio, if DeWine were to appoint him to that post. It's classic Kasich to withhold his endorsement of DeWine until concessions are made for him to change his stance. It won't be a surprise if, secretly, Kasich is given the job he wanted long ago as his next political position.

Kasich Rides JobsOhio Into 2020

Kasich leading JobsOhio would be perfect for several reasons: It's what he wanted to do all along; it pays big bucks, it's secret, he can take credit for economic miracles that may or may not happen, and maybe best of all, he can use it and its money to continue his favorite hobby, running for president in 2020. Mike DeWine just might give Kasich what he wants to shut him up and to bring him on-board, as best as he can be brought on-board anything where JRK isn't the marque star.

Then again, DeWine, who endorsed Kasich for president without any side deals to gain that endorsement, may just let Kasich wander off the political radar screen when he leaves office in seven months. Kasich is already shopping for his next gig, but being scorned by Trump and his base and totally not trusted by Democrats, Kasich will want a media job to keep him afloat for a couple years until horses line up for the next presidential cycle.

Stranger things have happened, like Donald Trump being elected President, so such a backroom deal between past and future governors in the same party seems like child's play compared to the national magic trick Trump pulled off in 2016.