Sandoval

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval participates in the opening session of the National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2016.

(Cliff Owen, The Associated Press)

John Kasich picks up a key endorsement - and maybe a future running mate? And Donald Trump has another warning for Cleveland. Read more in Ohio Politics Roundup.

Cue the Kasich-Sandoval chatter: Ohio Gov. John Kasich's presidential campaign scored an endorsement Saturday from Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval. Granted, Nevada's caucuses, where Sandoval voted for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, are far in the past. But Sandoval gives Kasich some Republican star power as the race shifts toward a likely contested convention.

"Under John Kasich's leadership, Ohio's economy has undergone an incredible transformation," Sandoval said in a statement sent by the Kasich campaign. "Now more than ever, America needs his leadership in the Oval Office. John Kasich is the only candidate in the race with a real plan to deliver results, and he is the only Republican who can defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall. I look forward to helping his team spread this message to voters in the months ahead."

Sandoval is a prominent Hispanic leader and a relative moderate who drew White House interest as a prospective compromise candidate for the Supreme Court vacancy created by Justice Antonin Scalia's death. Sandoval is now well-positioned to be on Kasich's shortlist for vice president if the time ever comes for Kasich to undertake such a decision.

This is pure speculation ... but could announcing Sandoval as his running mate help Kasich make a splash during the Cleveland convention? Jon Ralston, the top political reporter in Nevada, shared some similar thoughts Saturday evening on Twitter.

Kasich's answer on sexual assault draws criticism: While campaigning Friday in New York, the governor "delivered a lengthy response to a young woman asking about sexual assaults on college campuses that included the advice 'don't go to parties where there's a lot of alcohol,'" NBC News' Kailani Koenig reports. "The remark was criticized by Planned Parenthood and a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee as blaming victims. Kasich denied that, and said alcohol obscures the ability of people to seek justice' after an attack."

On the defensive: "But you understand why a lot of people, women in particular, took that as, wow, he's blaming the victim, or he's even giving some culpability to the victim," CNN's Dana Bash pressed in a "State of the Union" interview that aired Sunday on the cable network.

"Well ... actually, I don't know how anybody would take it that way," Kasich replied, prompting Bash to note that "it's taken a while to change the stigma of getting people to come out."

Kasich continued: "Dana, I'm the one that has led the way in the country to fight this and to get justice served in these conditions. I think even if, in fact, there is alcohol involved, you still have - you still can find the perpetrator. I just don't want justice to be denied because something comes up that a prosecutor looks at and says, well, I can't figure this thing out."

Full transcript here.

Courting the Jewish vote: "On Saturday, John Kasich gave what many of the reporters covering his campaign thought was one of his most effective and touching speeches yet. Because it was in a New York synagogue, cameras were banned and even note taking was considered forbidden. As a result only the 500 or so Orthodox Jews who were in the room at the Great Neck Synagogue will ever have seen it," the Guardian's Ben Jacobs writes.

"His speech was viewed with some trepidation: only a few days earlier the Anglican ... had seen fit to lecture yeshiva students about the Torah at a campaign stop in Brooklyn. The resulting awkwardness became internet fodder. There were moments of awkwardness here too, including Kasich briefly citing the end of Psalm 23 to solve a debate among Jewish theologians about the afterlife; and he cited the approaching holiday of Passover as an opportunity to see the Cecil B. DeMille classic 'The Ten Commandments.' But mostly the Ohio governor talked about his faith in a touching, personal way. He rooted it in a retelling the story of how his parents were killed by a drunk-driver in a car accident, and discussed the story of Joseph from Genesis."

More Donald Trump bluster: The Republican presidential frontrunner "warned the party of a 'rough July' at the convention as he railed Saturday against the way delegates were selected in places like Colorado," the New York Times' Maggie Haberman reports. "Several weeks ago, Mr. Trump was roundly criticized for saying there would be 'riots' at the convention in Cleveland ... if he was on course to get the nod and party delegates snatched it away."

Let the rules be ... for now: "Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus is urging his colleagues not to recommend any changes to convention rules" when they meet this week in Florida, "leaving it to the convention delegates to address controversies swirling around the party's nominating process," USA Today's Paul Singer writes.

"As drafted for the 2012 Republican convention, the RNC rules would limit the number of candidates who can be considered for the nomination at the convention. Only Donald Trump and Ted Cruz would qualify under [the 2012] rules, but there have been a variety of suggestions for changing the rules to allow other candidates to be considered at the July Republican convention. Ohio Gov. John Kasich would need a rules change to win the nomination."

What about the Ohio delegates? Based on the results of last month's primary, they are bound to Kasich only for the first ballot, cleveland.com's Andrew J. Tobias reports. After that, they are free agents. But in Ohio, the candidates run their own slates, meaning the Buckeye State's delegation is stacked with Kasich loyalists unlikely to do anything the governor wouldn't want.

Redistricting call not making much noise: Kasich, in his State of the State speech, argued "that the current process for redrawing congressional districts should be relegated to the 'dustbin of history,'" the Columbus Dispatch's Jessica Wehrman writes. "That's all well and good, say members of the U.S. House, but the details of such a proposal are important."

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