For Immediate Release

“Why compete for votes when you can use your gubernatorial powers to change or bend the law to quash your opponents?” That seems to be the attitude of Ohio Republican governor and presidential hopeful John Kasich.

Voters today strongly disapprove of the performance of both Democrats and Republicans in office and want more choices on the ballot. But Kasich denied them a choice when he helped to knock his competitor, Libertarian for Governor Charlie Earl, off the ballot in 2014.

Earl’s campaign had collected enough signatures to be on the ballot. But Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted challenged his signatures. Courts eventually ruled to disqualify Earl along with LibertarianSteven Linnabaryfor attorney general on a technicality that had been only selectively enforced in the past.

Terry Casey, who worked for Kasich’s 2010 gubernatorial campaign and whom Kasich later appointed to a $70,000-a-year job chairing the state personnel review board, hired the firm Zeiger, Tigges & Little to do the legal work needed to challenge the signatures.

“Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich is unfit to be president,” said Nicholas Sarwark, Chair of the Libertarian National Committee. “Not only does he play dirty, he’s a big-spender who fights efforts by his own legislature to control costs.”

As reported by the Cato Institute , spending increased in Ohio by 18 percent under Kasich’s leadership, largely due to his support for expanding Medicaid in defiance of the Ohio House of Representatives. They had inserted a provision in the state budget forbidding the Kasich administration from expansion without their approval. Kasich stripped the provision from the budget and then proceeded to expand the program without their approval.

“We urge all Americans to vote Libertarian and strip big-government politicians like Kasich of their ability to rig elections, circumvent the law, and drive up government spending,” said Sarwark.

“Kasich claims that Big Government schemes will mediate poverty, when in fact, Big Government is the primary cause of poverty throughout the world,’ said Sarwark.

Kasich has said, ‘When you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he’s probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But he’s going to ask what you did for the poor. You better have a good answer.’

‘Libertarians have the answer,’ said Sarwark. ‘Vote against politicians like Kasich who raise taxes, raise government spending, rig elections, and kowtow to medical insurance companies that leave families impoverished.”

In 2015, Kasich hastily signed Senate Bill 193, a law that revoked Ohio ballot access for any party other than that of the Republicans or Democrats.The Libertarian Party of Ohio is suing to overturn the law.

Bob Bridges, Chair of the Ohio LP, remains determined to give Ohio voters a Libertarian choice.

‘Wewillbe on the ballot again. We aren’t going away,’ he said.