Ohio Gov. John Kasich is traveling the West promoting a balanced-budget constitutional amendment — but before you start guessing, the former Republican nominee says it’s not about 2016.
According to the Wall Street Journal reports:
Fresh off his inauguration for a second term as governor, Mr. Kasich is traveling from South Dakota to Wyoming and Idaho on a tour that ends Friday, trying to rally support for a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced federal budget — even as fiscal issues appear to be fading in Congress.
Mr. Kasich, who briefly ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, says the budget campaign has nothing to do with his thoughts about whether to try again in 2016. The tour could support him build a national profile among ambitious Republicans, but he sidestepped questions about his plans.
“My options are on the table, but I have nothing more to say about it,” he said. When someone in Pierre, South Dakota, raised the issue, he joked about other Republicans considering a bid: “They’re all in New Hampshire, and I’m in South Dakota!”
Kasich won reelection in Ohio in 2014 by a commanding margin of more than 30 points, and such a mighty showing in the purple state suggests a cross-partisan appeal that would theoretically support in any national election. Still, he is largely a gloomy horse in a race that has so far been led by household names like Bush and Romney.
