John Kasich

Ohio Gov. John Kasich delivers his State of the State address at the Sandusky State Theatre, Tuesday, April 4, 2017, in Sandusky, Ohio.

(AP Photo/Ron Schwane)

John Kasich raises the idea of an independent presidential run in 2020 - though perhaps with someone other than him as the candidate. Ohio Republican members of Congress consider whether to support a revised healthcare bill. And the Ohio House's revised budget bill seeks to stop local anti-lead initiatives. Today's Ohio Politics Roundup is brought to you by Jeremy Pelzer.

Will Kasich launch a 2020 indie run? BuzzFeed News' Henry J. Gomez, who spent time with Ohio Gov. John Kasich last week in New England, writes that the governor "seems tempted by the idea of running for president as an independent." Speaking at Harvard and during an interview with Gomez, Kasich said the day is coming when a well-funded independent can win the White House.

"Both parties, I think, are missing it," Kasich said. "That's why I said tonight, and I'll say again in this car, that I think they're going to matter less and less unless they get their act together."

Kasich strategist John Weaver, though, doesn't see the governor running as an independent, telling Gomez that Kasich's words are just a "clarion call" to both parties that someone else might run.

Is Kasich still a Republican? "Oh yeah, I'm a Repub... ," Kasich said to Gomez. The governor continued: "I'm pro-environment, I'm pro-trade, I'm anti-debt, I'm pro-immigration, I'm pro-NATO. And when I look at the party, I see it moving in a different direction. But I've always said I have the right to define what it means to be a Republican and a conservative."

Tough talk on North Korea: Kasich on Friday suggested that the U.S. should take out North Korea's top leadership, according to cleveland.com's Stephen Koff. "North Korean top leadership has to go, and there are ways in which that can be achieved," Kasich said at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast in D.C. The governor sidestepped questions afterward about whether he meant assassination. But he added that Trump may already be making progress, noting that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un apparently canceled a recent nuclear test launch.

Reality check: While Kasich's being talked about as a potential 2020 presidential candidate, his "options are limited as long as Trump sits in the Oval Office," writes The Hill's Ben Kamisar. And the governor's refusal to completely swear off a primary challenge to Trump "could rub the president or his inner circle the wrong way, as Trump has shown a willingness to go after political opponents," Kamisar writes, noting that the president threatened to fund a super PAC against Kasich and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz after last year's primary.

Kasich's book tour heads home: The governor spent about half an hour at a Westlake bookstore on Sunday, signing books and conducting interviews with local reporters, cleveland.com's Andrew J. Tobias reports. On Saturday, Kasich held a book signing in suburban Dayton, as detailed by the Dayton Daily News' Josh Sweigart, winning applause when he decried partisanship and gerrymandering.

Multitasker-in-chief: Kasich insisted to the Columbus Dispatch's Darrel Rowland that he can continue to run the state while on his nationwide book tour. "These phones do work all the way back to Ohio," Kasich said in a phone interview. Kasich faced similar questions - and offered a similar answer - while running for president last year.

Ohio congressmen mull new health-care plan:

"The conservative House Freedom Caucus has signed off on the newest Republican effort to alter the Affordable Care Act, but other Northeast Ohio Republicans aren't convinced that they'll vote for it,"

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U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, a Champaign County Republican who co-founded the Freedom Caucus, is behind the new compromise plan, calling it "our best chance to pass a bill through the House that will actually reduce the cost of health insurance for everyday Americans."

But House Republicans can't afford more than 20 defections for the plan to pass. And spokesmen for Republican U.S. Reps. Dave Joyce of Russell Township, Jim Renacci of Wadsworth and Bob Gibbs of Holmes County said their bosses are still examining the legislation and don't know how they'd vote on it.

Air it out: MoveOn.org flew a plane over Joyce's Geauga County office on Sunday with a banner reading, "REP. JOYCE - DON'T TAKE HEALTH CARE FROM 24 MIL. PEOPLE." The liberal activist group stated in a release that it flew similar banners over the offices of eight other Republicans who opposed the House GOP leadership's initial health-care bill, the American Health Care Act.

Chabot weighs in on Trump... Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot of Westwood tells the Cincinnati Enquirer's Deirdre Shegreen that for him, "the jury's still out" about Trump. He's thrilled with Trump's assertive foreign policy and is unconcerned about the Trump campaign's possible contacts with Russia and Trump's false statements on things like crowd size and illegal wiretapping. But he's had it with the president's tweets and advised him to apologize to those whom he offended during the campaign - Hispanics, Muslims, and POWs.

The biggest failure so far has been on health care, the congressman said, though he placed the blame there on House conservatives, not the president.

...As does Marcy Kaptur: U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat, has an op-ed in The Hill criticizing Trump for refusing to label China a currency manipulator. Kaptur on Trump: "He has fallen into the same 'do nothing,' 'politics as usual' routine where coastal politicians do little more than pay lip service to Middle America, save for a few months every four years."

Portman's anti-red-tape bill draws criticism: U.S. Sen. Rob Portman introduced new bipartisan legislation last week to require cost-benefit reviews and hearings on all major regulations and outlaw agencies from campaigning for regulations. As Koff writes, the measure created an outcry among consumer groups, environmental organizations, and individual Americans - partly because for the first time that Portman's been in the Senate, Congress and the White House are sympathetic to such an effort (the U.S. House already passed a similar bill earlier this year).

Lawmakers look to lose local lead laws: The Ohio House's amended budget bill would, if passed, forbid cities from having their own lead poisoning prevention initiatives - including efforts in Cleveland and Toledo that call for rental homes to be safe from potential lead hazards, according to The Plain Dealer's Rachel Dissell and Brie Zeltner.

State Rep. Derek Merrin, a Monclova Township Republican, brought the measure because he opposes Toledo's new ordinance requiring home inspections of rental properties for lead hazards (Cleveland recently announced its own rental inspection program will start this July). The Ohio Department of Health, as well as Cleveland city officials, seemed surprised by Merrin's amendment.

Speaking of anti-lead laws: Dissell and Zeltner also found that Cleveland city officials continue to ignore a state law requiring health authorities to post warning signs on homes they know to have unaddressed lead hazards. Officials offer a number of explanations, including that they've been busy with other problems, they don't want to displace tenants, it's not the city's responsibility, and that occupants may just move to another home that's equally unsafe.

A budget win for nursing homes: Ohio's nursing homes successfully lobbied Ohio House Republicans to yank a proposal in Kasich's budget plan to move all long-term care Medicaid patients to managed care plans next year. As cleveland.com's Jackie Borchardt explains, the revised budget blocks such a move until 2021, amid concerns that a pilot program with some of these patients has had problems. Kasich administration officials, on the other hand, released a report stating that delaying the program could create a $132 million budget hole and prevent many Ohioans from receiving better care.

Parkland drilling measure is back: Ohio House Republicans also inserted budget language to allow oil and gas exploration on publicly owned parkland, reports The Plain Dealer's James Ewinger. Lawmakers unsuccessfully sought such a change two years ago.

Anti-Medicaid expansion plan gets blowback: Critics of the Ohio House GOP's plan to gut Medicaid expansion say it would severely undercut the state's battle against the opioid epidemic, according to the Dispatch's Catherine Candisky and Jim Siegel. They write that the proposal would set up a "head-on collision" with Kasich, who pushed through expansion three years ago. House Finance Committee Chair Ryan Smith, a Gallia County Republican, isn't on board yet, saying he needs to study the proposal further before forming an opinion on it.

The budget bill would also allow unusual no-bid sales of more than 6,900 acres of prison farmland, reports the Dispatch's Alan Johnson, though a Department of Administrative Services spokesman said the state still plans to sell the property through competitive bidding.

Cincy mayoral primary approaches: The Democratic primary election for Cincinnati mayor is Tuesday, featuring incumbent John Cranley, Cincinnati City Councilwoman Yvette Simpson and ex-University of Cincinnati board Chairman Rob Richardson Jr. The top two vote-getters will advance to the November ballot.

The Enquirer's Jason Williams expects Cranley and Simpson will advance and run a closely contested general election campaign. But Williams also urges readers not to count out Richardson, as "low turnout can lead to some unpredictability." Hamilton County Board of Elections Director Sherry Poland is projecting between 15 percent and 20 percent turnout - better than the 2013 mayoral primary, but still low.

Court official sides with paper in records fight: The Ohio Department of Public Safety improperly withheld public records concerning the deployment of 37 state troopers to a North Dakota pipeline protest, a special master in the Ohio Court of Claims has ruled. The Dispatch's Randy Ludlow reports that Special Master Jeffrey Clark found that state officials improperly cited privacy laws and security exemptions in refusing to release records to The Cincinnati Enquirer. A Court of Claims judge will make the final ruling on Clark's recommendations.

Judge in Steve Kraus case removed: The judge presiding over an appeal of ex-state Rep. Steve Kraus' felony theft conviction has been removed from the case, in part because of his social relationship with Chris Redfern, the former Ohio Democratic Party chair whom Kraus unseated in 2014, according to the Toledo Blade's Jim Provance. Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor stressed her removal of Judge Dale Crawford, a visiting judge from Franklin County, wasn't because of any misconduct on Crawford's part, but was just to "avoid an appearance of impropriety."

Disunion among Lucas County Dems: "A rift is developing into open war in the Lucas County Democratic Party between the chairman, Joshua Hughes, and some labor unions, although the reasons are murky," the Blade's Tom Troy reports. Last week, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union withdrew its support for the county party's annual golf outing in June, citing "discord" between the party and labor groups. Three other unions have sued Hughes, party chair since 2015, claiming his former law firm charged "clearly excessive fees."

Troy wonders whether the upcoming race for Toledo mayor could be a factor: Democratic Mayor Paula Hicks-Hudson is expected to face a primary challenge from Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz.

Boom: Capitol Square denizens on Friday got their yearly reminder of Abraham Lincoln's Columbus funeral train stop, as Civil War reenactors encamped on the Statehouse lawn, rattling office windows with hourly firings from a 12-pound cannon. Borchardt has more on this year's event, held on the 152nd anniversary of when Lincoln's body lay in state in Columbus.

Tucker Carlson's coming to Ohio: The conservative Fox News commentator who took over Bill O'Reilly's time slot is slated to keynote the 32nd Annual Ashbrook Memorial Dinner at Ashland University on June 3. Tickets to the dinner are $250, according to a release from the Ashbrook Center.

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