The Ohio Democratic Party is suing Governor John Kasich in a Franklin County Court, saying he’s illegally hiding documents that should be made available to the public. Ohio Public Radio’s Jo Ingles reports.
The Ohio Democratic Party’s Chris Redfern says his office has asked Governor Kasich’s office for copies of his schedule seven different times.
Redfern: We think that Governor Kasich is hiding something.
Redfern says he wants copies of the Governor’s monthly schedule and only once has it been provided.
Redfern: We received about three weeks later a list of 127 events that the Governor participated in during the course of June. And 83 of those events were totally redacted. So almost ¾ of the governor’s public events he redacted that information. So we don’t know what he was doing and with whom he was doing it and how much time he was spending on Mitt Romney’s campaign for instance.
Redfern doesn’t just want schedules. He also wants travel logs and emails. Redfern suggests Kasich is spending too much time on political efforts for Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and meeting with lobbyists. Redfern says if Kasich thinks he can ignore these requests, he had better think again.
Redfern: Seven different public records requests have been ignored by the Governor. He is not above the law. The Governor might think he’s above the law but he’s not. He can threaten others with his bus. I dare him to run over the Ohio Democratic Party and myself.
Casey: If Mr Redfern was more honest and wasn’t so hypocritical, he would have scolded Ted Strickland then.
That’s Terry Casey, a spokesman for Republican Governor Mitt Romney’s campaign. Casey says Democratic Former Governor Ted Strickland campaigned on behalf of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when they were running for office back in 2008. And Casey says Kasich hasn’t been hiding his campaign activities.
Casey: The Ohio media has been very good on the few occasions that Governor Kasich has been out there campaigning, they certainly don’t keep that secret. It’s been reported fully and accurately.
As far as the redacted information, Casey says there could be good reason for it.
Casey: The reality is this Governor has been this Governor in particular is actually working hard to get jobs into Ohio and you don’t want to put out in press releases every prospective business or business leader you are talking to because they like to ask questions, consider the options with some degree of confidentiality.
Rob Nichols, a spokesman for Governor Kasich, put out a written statement saying the office has released the governor’s schedule six times, including a schedule request to the Ohio Democratic party. Nichols says this is just another example of election year politics.