Chrissie Thompson

cthompson@enquirer.com

SANDUSKY - Tuesday marked John Kasich's first State of the State address when he wasn't, as he said, "running for anything."

His presidential campaign is over – for good, he says. The Ohio Constitution prevents him from running for re-election as governor.

What he is doing instead: selling his final budget to reticent lawmakers in his party, launching his latest book and speaking out against some of the priorities of President Donald Trump and Kasich's fellow Republicans in Congress.

Kasich gave a State of the State address Tuesday cajoling fellow Republicans to accept his ideas for the state and positioning himself as a leader with ideas for the nation, elected office or not. He gave this year's address in Sandusky, the Lake Erie playground – a town so excited to host the governor that the local paper counted down the days to the speech and Bay Township trustee Art Castillo waved to Kasich from the back row of the 1,500-seat theater when the governor took the stage.

Here are three takeaways from Kasich's address.

1. Kasich's speech was nothing like one Trump would have given.

After touting the new companies Ohio has welcomed during his tenure, Kasich warned of the threat technology poses to Ohio workers.

Robots could further take over assembly lines. Autonomous trucks could affect the jobs of truck drivers.

"If we aren't prepared for change, people are going to find themselves out of work," Kasich said.

Not exactly a Trump-esque promise to bring blue-collar jobs back to the heartland.

For that matter, Kasich said to chuckles, "maybe the General Assembly will be replaced by robots. ... Maybe the governor as well."

Not running for anything, hmm? Twitter thought that robot line might make a good campaign promise.

2. This also wasn't exactly the speech Kasich's fellow Republicans would prefer he give.

Defending his decision to expand Medicaid in Ohio to more than 700,000 low-income adults, Kasich referenced his recent trips to Washington, D.C., and frequent television interviews in opposition to House Republicans' recent attempt to replace Obamacare. The plan would have phased out Medicaid expansion starting in 2020.

“That’s why I spent so much time fighting over this health care, because I don’t want to leave them behind. I don't want the drug-addicted to be out somewhere. I don't want the mentally ill to be discarded. And I don't want the chronically ill to die because we couldn't get them care. And we're going to keep fighting on it," Kasich said, to applause.

Two who conspicuously refrained from clapping: the other two Republicans on stage with Kasich, Ohio House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger and Senate President Larry Obhof. (It's not like they were anti-clapping: They led a standing ovation for the Ohio State Highway Patrol.)

After the speech, neither man would say directly whether he agreed with Kasich's stand on the health care bill or whether he thought a GOP health care bill should include money for Medicaid expansion.

"I don't think you should read too much into whether someone applauds," said Rosenberger, of Clinton County. "I think the governor is doing what he thinks is something that will help 700,000 Ohioans." Ohio already has Medicaid expansion, Rosenberger said, so lawmakers are seeking to hold costs down and provide care to people unless the federal government changes the program.

"I don't support the Affordable Care Act," said Obhof, of Medina. "In one form or another, I think every (Republican) up here would prefer to see it either repealed or some kind of repeal and replace."

Republican lawmakers are used to hearing a Kasich State of the State speech that hits on policies they oppose. As in the past, Kasich used much of the address to defend ideas Republicans are expected to throw out when they start making changes to his budget proposal later this month.

7 things to know about John Kasich's budget for Ohio

For instance, Kasich would like to increase and expand the state's sales tax to help pay for another income tax cut. Republican lawmakers generally have rejected that idea in the past. "We’re never going to be as competitive as we need to be if we don’t pay attention to this," Kasich warned, saying they should ignore his ideas "if you want to lose."

The warning about robots' taking blue-collar jobs bolstered Kasich's pitch for lawmakers to accept two of his education proposals. He wants to require teachers to job shadow at businesses to renew their licenses, and he's called for requiring business members as non-voting advisers on school boards, to help shape curriculum. Both ideas are controversial. Republican leaders in the Legislature have already shot down the teacher job shadow proposal and reiterated that stance Tuesday.

How much money schools would get under John Kasich's plan

Not that Democrats liked those parts of Kasich's address any better.

House Minority Leader Fred Strahorn, of Dayton, called Kasich's tax proposals "trickle-down, tax-shifting policies."

"These policies over the last few years just have not created a lot of opportunity and growth in Ohio," he said.

3. Presidential campaign in 2020 or no, Kasich is sticking to a national stump speech.

From the insistence Tuesday that he's not "running for anything" to the seven no's he strung together in an interview with CNN, Kasich has made clear his disinclination to challenge Trump in 2020.

Still, national politics watchers will hear a lot from Kasich this month. Three weeks from Tuesday, he is scheduled to release his latest book, "Two Paths: America Divided or United," which positions him as an ongoing critic of President Donald Trump. It's a position he's taken in many national interviews since Trump became president in January, while calling instead for bipartisanship and moderation.

More interviews related to the book are coming, along with a tour stop in New Hampshire, home to the nation's first presidential primary.

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Kasich took some time Tuesday to warm up some themes from his book, although he didn't explicitly sell the tome. (He did make a possible allusion to a story in the book on his bipartisan efforts to set statewidepolice guidelines for the use of deadly force. "Wait until you read more about it," Kasich said. )

"Across this country, there's rising polarization and inability for the political parties to work together. This is not acceptable," Kasich said. "We can't wait around for some politician to show up, any of us, to fix all this. ... The solutions have to start (in the) house, church, school, our town square."

Presidential campaign or no, Kasich's thoughts clearly have a national focus, as he travels to the nation's capital and speaks out on Washington policy debates. The book, the travel, even parts of Tuesday's speech – they all serve as a way to keep his options open. Kasich views himself as a national leader. If another opportunity presents itself to run for president, as he told CNN last month, "you don't close the door on anything."