Used to be that elected officials would leave the public sector for high paying jobs in the financial services industry. They'd parlay their political connections for business. That's what former GOP Congressman John Kasich did. He went to work for Lehman Brothers. Now, Lehman is gone and Kasich is running for Governor of Ohio. There's a nexus.
Turns out Kasich was trying to get a couple of Ohio state pension funds to invest with Lehman:
Republican gubernatorial candidate John Kasich tried to persuade two state pension funds in 2002 to invest with Lehman Brothers while he was the managing director of the investment banking house's Columbus office.Still not sure why anyone thinks GOPers are better on fiscal issues. They're not.
In a reply to questions from The Dispatch, Kasich campaign officials acknowledged that the former congressman helped arrange the two meetings between Lehman officials and representatives of the Ohio Police and Fire Pension Fund and the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System, known as OPERS.
Kasich campaign officials said in a statement that "these meetings did not result in business for Lehman Brothers, and John earned no commission from this or any other public sector business." Kasich never approached any other Ohio governmental entity about doing business with Lehman, the campaign said.
