Does Ohio’s Governor Think It’s 1950?

by Stuart Shapiro

The 1950s must have been a great time in Ohio.  The mere thought of them makes Speaker Boehner weep.  Meanwhile, the new governor, Republican John Kasich, has constructed a cabinet that is entirely white.  After being alerted to the past fifty years of history, Kasich relented, sort of. He proclaimed February Black History Month and “announced” the appointment of African-American staffer Lynn Stevens to be Director of Minority Affairs to do minority outreach. As Think Progress notes:

One small problem with this new appointment: It’s not new. As Ohio progressive blog Plunderbund points out, “Lynn Stevens was ALREADY the Director of Minority Affairs and has been serving in this position for nearly a month.” Indeed, Stevens has even already dealt with a separate Kasich race scandal involving Martin Luther King Day. Stevens’ “position is not cabinet-level.”

I do have to sympathize with Kasich in one regard, however.  Given the love of Ohio Republicans for the 1950s, it must be hard to find an African-American Republican in Ohio.

By: Stuart Shapiro

Stuart is a professor and the Director of the Public Policy
program at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers
University. He teaches economics and cost-benefit analysis and studies
regulation in the United States at both the federal and state levels.
Prior to coming to Rutgers, Stuart worked for five years at the Office
of Management and Budget in Washington under Presidents Clinton and
George W. Bush.