Kasich touts bipartisan track record to win over NH voters

Printed from: https://newbostonpost.com/2016/02/08/kasich-touts-bipartisan-track-record-to-win-over-nh-voters/

CONCORD, NH — With only a day to go before New Hampshire voters head to the polls for the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, Ohio Governor John Kasich attended his 102d town hall meeting at Concord High School on Sunday.

Kasich, who has been traveling across the state for months in an attempt to connect to New Hampshire residents, is currently in tight race for second place in New Hampshire behind clear frontrunner billionaire business mogul Donald Trump, according to the RealClearPolitics average.   In national polls, Kasich is currently polling seventh out of eight candidates.

On Sunday, Kasich attempted to appeal to voters by touting his many years of experience in varying levels of government and citing his ability to reach across party lines to get things accomplished, even when it meant upsetting other Republicans.

“I made a speech at this group of legislators, and I ripped into the Democratic budget,” he said of his time on the budget committee in 1989. “I was a Republican, so I know they were expecting that. But then I proceeded to rip into the Republican budget.”

Kasich told the crowd that he spent years fighting to get a balanced budget passed, making a little progress at a time until it was passed in 1995, saying that two years later his plan had worked and the budget was balanced.

His bipartisan efforts and a focus on positive discourse have been cornerstones of his Granite State campaign. Kasich told the crowd that he believes that in the final 24 hours before polls open, candidates should suspend all attack ads and instead focus only on presenting their ideas.

When asked what the current regulations on small businesses are impacting her company, Dr. Julia Glidden, a small business owner from York, Maine, told Kasich that “They’re killing us. I don’t have an accountant, I don’t have lawyer, I can’t navigate it.”

Kasch praised small business owners for being job creators, stating that while some regulation was necessary, too much was hurting entrepreneurs in the country. Calling for decreased taxes to help these small business owners, Kasich stated that his first days in office would be focused on improving the economic state of the country.