By Doug Livingston
Beacon Journal politics reporter
Ohio’s governor squeezed into a dark backroom at a Cleveland steakhouse Monday to speak about strengthening the Republican Party.
He did it with a roomful of Illinois conservatives who, huddled around a ring of television cameras, would rather have heard Kasich give the speech down the street under the bright lights of the Republican National Convention.
But Gov. John Kasich refuses to go to Quicken Loans Arena, where the GOP champion, Donald Trump, is expected to accept the party’s nomination for president on Thursday.
Kasich instead made his flash appearance at Hyde Park Steakhouse shortly before the Trump organization rolled out its star-studded speaker lineup in the first night of official convention business.
The Illinois delegates were baffled by Kasich’s refusal to make the short walk to the convention center and to endorse their candidate.
“I don’t know what his deal is,” said Ed Baron, a Trump delegate who lives west of Chicago. “I have to look at the reality. Why won’t he walk down the block to the convention.”
Kasich’s “Big Tent” Republican Party speech, which failed to mention Trump, didn’t sit well with many in the delegation, which included bus drivers, secretaries and blue-collar workers instead of the more typical party players, lobbyists and elected officials.
The exchange underscores a rift in the national Republican Party. States like Ohio, which voted for Kasich in the primary, are dragging their heels while Trump and his supporters go after any career politician undermining his legitimacy.
The Manafort attack
Earlier in the day on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Trump’s chief adviser Paul Manafort criticized Kasich for avoiding the convention.
“It’s a difficult situation when the home state governor doesn’t participate in the convention process…” Manafort said. “We invited him. We wanted him to participate. He chose not to. We think that’s the wrong decision. There were no conditions put on him.”
Ohio Republican Party chairman Matt Borges, a close friend to Kasich, Tweeted in the Governor’s defense: “Manafort still has a lot to learn about Ohio politics. Doesn’t know what he’s talking about. Hope he can do better.”
Establishment icons like the Bush family also have rebuked Trump. Manafort dismissed them as “part of the past.”
The internal conflict is unfolding on a national stage as America turns its attention to Cleveland, where the Grand Old Party twists and turns into a new form of conservatism.
On the floor of the convention, delegate holdouts in the Never-Trump movement fought to the bitter end, offering a final and futile effort to change the rules so they might not have to see Trump on the Republican ballot this fall.
Kasich’s appeal
Kasich is popular among moderate conservatives.
He handily took Ohio with organized support from a state party machine he controlled. But he finished a distant third in Illinois where Trump, often discounting the importance of Republican leaders, tapped into a growing resentment for politics as usual.
And when it comes to politics as usual, Ohio and Illinois have much in common.
Both have electoral maps rigged to favor the party in control: Republicans in Columbus and Democrats in Springfield have redrawn district lines to minimize competition from the minority party.
With Republicans controlling politics in Ohio, Illinois has more of a reckoning at hand, said Mark Shaw, who was elected earlier this year to the Lake County Republican Party in northeast Illinois. He traveled to Cleveland this week as a Trump delegate and a member of what Illinois calls its new Republican Party, which has grown out of a grass-roots movement disgusted with leadership.
“I’m very much aware of the grass-roots voters and the message they’re sending,” said Shaw.
Many don’t work in politics.
“I’m just a rag tag person,” said Kathleen Goro, a Trump delegate who lives near Wrigley Field in Chicago. “I mean, I work at a doctor’s office two days a week.”
After emailing the Trump campaign early on, Goro was “shocked” and honored to hear she would be among 54 Trump delegates in Cleveland.
Others jumped on the Trump train looking to drive the party in a new direction.
“I didn’t want to see Kasich win,” said Bob Bedmar, a bus driver and Trump delegate from Lake County Illinois. “In my state, it seemed like everybody who was for Kasich was deep in the establishment. And the problem that we have with that in Illinois is that establishment seems to empower the Democrats.”
Illinois is in the midst of a contentious political showdown over state spending. Trump supporters applauded Kasich for standing with Gov. Bruce Rauner as the Republican vows to reign in spending.
But they also recognize that Rauner is no fan of Trump. Nor is their U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk. Kasich said he would travel to Illinois to campaign for Kirk on August 3.
Short speech
At the end of his five-minute speech, Kasich ignored reporters’ questions as he followed a line of men in suits toward an SUV with tinted windows parked outside.
Kasich reminded the crowd of recent police shootings. He noted that, as a Republican, he spoke the day before at an annual NAACP meeting in Cincinnati. Trump has refused an invitation to speak before the civil rights group.
Kasich spoke of successful policies in Ohio that “will help us expand the Republican Party” while “not compromising our principles.”
Kasich’s political team announced the visit on Sunday — along with a number of other visits this week to support down-ticket candidates and political action committees.
An hour before he was scheduled to speak on Monday, media had flocked to the small steak house, which already was pushing the fire marshal’s recommended occupancy level.
Eventually a private security guard opened the door and reporters pushed their way in, past tables of complimentary wine and fancy hors d’oevres.
About 30 journalists settled into a back room, unfolding camera tripods and telling a Republican organizer where Kasich should stand so they could get a good shot.
Eric Burgess, a Republican chair for a township party and a guest from Illinois, stood on a window seal to get a view of Kasich.
After the speech, Burgess thought about Kasich’s mid-primary pledge to endorse whoever emerged the victor. Kasich, obviously, has since rescinded that promise. And Burgess wonders if he was ever sincere.
“It’s hard to tell. They’re politicians,” said Burgess. “That’s what they’re supposed to do. They’re supposed to play both ends at all times so they don’t lose any voters.”
Beacon Journal political reporter Doug Livingston can be emailed at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com