Ohio Gov. John Kasich is banking on winning tomorrow's Republican Party primary to keep his presidential campaign alive. He's been running radio and TV ads running across the state and elsewhere claiming “Ohio is booming again, and you know he could do the same for America.”
Kasich has repeatedly called Ohio “one of the fastest growing states in the country” and dubbed the transformation the “Ohio Miracle,” holding the state up as a model for Rust Belt recession recovery. But there's one problem with that message, Next City reports.
“According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Ohio has now gone 38 straight months with job growth below the national average,” Daniel McGraw writes. “And a recent report from the entrepreneur-driven Economic Innovation Group ranked three Ohio cities — Cleveland, Cincinnati and Toledo — in the top 10 of the 'most distressed cities' in America.”
McGraw says the divergence of Kasich's campaign claims vs. the reality of Ohio's urban distress begs the questions economists have long held: Do governors have much impact over their state economies, and should they get credit or blame?
Next City is a nonprofit organization providing daily online coverage of the leaders, policies and innovations driving progress in metropolitan regions across the world.
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