Karen Kasler
Bureau ChiefContact Karen at 614-578-6375 or at kkasler@statehousenews.org.
Karen Kasler grew up in Lancaster, attended Otterbein College in Westerville, and found her professional break at WCBE-FM in Columbus. Karen was selected as a Fellow in the Kiplinger Master's Degree Program for Mid-Career Journalists at Ohio State University in 1994. She worked at WTVN-AM and WBNS-TV, both in Columbus, then for eight years was the afternoon drive anchor and assignment editor for WTAM-AM, Cleveland.
Since returning to Columbus in 2004, Karen has covered major elections and the controversies surrounding them. She served as moderator for the Ohio Debate Commission's Republican US Senate debate in 2022, its Supreme Court debate in 2020 and its gubernatorial debate in 2018. In addition to other election-related debates, she's led forums on statewide issues including redistricting, tax policy, drug sentencing, marijuana legalization and the collective bargaining law known as Senate Bill 5.
She's produced features for NPR and "Marketplace", and has been interviewed by NPR, the BBC, CBS, NBC, Radio New Zealand and stations around the country. She's a regular panelist on ideastream's "The Sound of Ideas" and a frequent guest on WOSU-TV’s “Columbus on the Record”, WOSU-FM's "All Sides with Anna Staver" and WVXU's "Cincinnati Edition".
Karen has been honored by the Cleveland Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Association of Capitol Editors and Reporters, and holds a National Headliner Award. She's won several awards from the Ohio AP, and is a four-time winner of the AP's Best Broadcast Writing award. She's a three-time Emmy nominee for "The State of Ohio". She's a past president of the Ohio Associated Press and has served on the Board of Directors for the Central Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. Karen is also a former adjunct professor at Capital University in Columbus.
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It’s unlikely all the signatures collected so far are valid, and the number is far short of the hundreds of thousands of signatures needed, but the group is pleased so far. -
Ohio’s gas tax has a bigger impact than the federal gas tax, since it’s more than double that number. -
People around data centers and future sites are sounding the alarm about their land and water use, utility costs and jobs created. The data center industry is starting to push back. -
The 2022 lawsuit filed by a coalition of Ohio’s public school districts over the constitutionality of the state’s EdChoice universal vouchers is in the hands of an appeals court. -
Andy Wilson will lead the attorney general's office till January following the departure of Dave Yost on June 7. -
School officials say even with homeowners’ concerns about rising property taxes, they don’t think the high failure rate shows a voter revolt on levies is building. -
Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has confirmed that he's resigning, eight months before his term ends in January. -
There could be a big shake up coming among Republicans in Ohio government, as one of the five term-limited statewide executive officeholders is set to suddenly resign from that post today. -
There were four Republican races on the Ohio primary ballot, with two on the Democratic side. -
There has long been little doubt that tech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy would be the Republican nominee for Ohio governor this year, and Tuesday's primary left no doubt.
