From my observation, and I do not watch Ohio closely, Kasich hung on to the claim that he was conservative, but ultimately dumped on conservatives that had been repeatedly lied to by the GOP-e. I am not a huge Trump fan, but he is conservative in the sense that he is the only Washington outsider capable of damaging the lock the political class has over Washington. That lock has been detrimental to the citizens who REPEATEDLY had called for change that made good sense. The GOP committed fraud against folks like me by promising change, knowing full well they would not even attempt to deliver. Instead of siding with the citizens, Kasich sided with the elite political class.
I don’t remember the details too well, but I think he also bit on healthcare money from Washington and used it to strengthen Medicaid and /or Medicare. While I understand it helped the state budget, there comes a time where we have to say “no” to the enticements to sell our souls to the monster in DC for money . . . Kasich jumped at the chance. I liked him for a long time, but the more I watched him, the more I realized he was part of the problem and NOT the solution.
Very fortunate is the man whose friends never let him down. I have had three friends in my life who have not, and one of those died last year from pancreatic cancer. Learning that I had fewer friends than I thought brought me a measure of valuable wisdom that I would have preferred not to attain. Knowledge of what the world is REALLY like is a heavy burden to bear. My Dad taught me at a young age to prepare to NOT depend on anyone but myself . . . I guess that he, like me, learned the hard way. And politicians are far less worthy of trust than most people. Color me cynical, but I have been proven correct far more than I have been proven wrong. I am sorry your friend disappointed you. I know first hand in a personal way how that feels.
Kasich did want to expand state coverage for Medicaid recipients, and I assume that added funding would come from federal dollars. He did clean up the budget mess left by his predecessor, Ted Strickland, who though a nice guy was utterly ineffective as Governor, and spent a lot of his time cheerleading and campaigning for Obama. Kasich also got the local school systems to own up to the need to take care of their own funding and not rely so heavily on state largesse. And they now seem to do that.
I don't know, something seemed to happen to John after his re-election to Governor by a historic landslide, one of the most lopsided victories in state history. I met up with him at a reception after that election and since he knew me he spent a few minutes talking. He seemed to have this vision of transforming state government into a force for good for all people, and wanted to be as inclusive as possible by reaching out to the lower-income segments of the population and helping them work their way up. But it involved more expenditure of taxpayer dollars, at least initially. I told him I thought it was a fine vision but did not agree with government as being the prime mover in it. So we left it at that. In any case, I think he is done with politics after this current term. I know he doesn't want to be a Senator or go back to the House.