Kasich sat next to Adelson at lunch and mentioned him repeatedly in his speech. Kasich bonds with Adelson in Vegas

LAS VEGAS – Ohio Gov. John Kasich introduced himself to Jewish donors – paying special attention to reigning GOP mega-donor Sheldon Adelson – on Saturday at a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition.

Kasich, considered among the party’s crop of potential 2016 presidential candidate, used a lunchtime speech to highlight his working class upbringing and his work in Ohio, defending a decision that has proven unpopular with the GOP base to accept $14 billion in Medicaid funds from the federal government as part of Obamacare.


“Some governors have decided to leave it in Washington. I might have thought about leaving it there, but I happen to know what they would do with it down there,” said Kasich, a former congressman, to laughter. He added that the state was using the money to fund substance abuse programs – one of his signature issues. “The stronger our state is, the more we can do to help people who live in the shadows.”

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In order to take back the Senate in 2014 and have a chance at winning the White House in 2016, Kasich told the donors the Republican Party needs to “show people that we understand their problems, we care about their problems, we want to help them.”

A strong focus on the economy and restraining spending is important, he said, but it can’t be “a one trick pony – and it’s a really important horse, OK?”

Kasich was among the big-name 2016 prospects to appear at the event, which also featured speeches from Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Chris Christie of New Jersey and former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida. Their trips to the desert were seen as efforts to court Adelson, whose casino hotels played host to the event, and who spent upwards of $100 million boosting various Republicans in 2012.

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Kasich sat next to Adelson at lunch, and mentioned him repeatedly – and sometimes in a non-sequiturial fashion – in his speech, occasionally making it seem as if he were talking to an audience of one, while the hundreds of other RJC donors looked on.

“Sheldon and I were kind of talking about his background. I come from a little town outside of Pittsburgh called McKees Rocks – it was very blue collar,” Kasich said, as he launched into his biography. When he discussed the prescription of pain killers, he said Adelson – who once testified that he took as many as 25 medications in a day to manage pain from a neurological condition in 2001 – “is someone who knows about this.”

While Kasich’s speech didn’t touch on foreign policy – the primary political focus of Adelson and many RJC donors – he delved deeply into the subject in a question-and-answer session that followed the speech. Pointing out that he served for years on the Armed Services Committee in the House, Kasich said the United States should maintain a military presence in Afghanistan and that both Russia and Iran should face more sanctions. His assertion that the U.S. should not pressure Israel into a peace process was the biggest applause line of his speech.

He concluded his speech by saying, “Hey, listen, Sheldon, thanks for inviting me, and I want to thank all of you for giving me a chance to come here and speak. I don’t travel to these things much, but this is one that I thought was really, really important. And God bless you for what you do.”