“Shady donors with concealed identities have teamed up with Mike Huckabee’s Super PAC and a convicted felon to run a smear campaign against Governor Kasich in New Hampshire”, said Connie Wehrkamp, New Day For America spokeswoman.
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The Globe’s piece was as much an endorsement of Kasich as it was an un-endorsement of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who the paper slammed for his anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim rhetoric.
The New Hampshire primary is the first in the nation and will be held on February 9.
But, of course, it hasn’t been strictly good news. He said Mr. Kasich is positioned to do well in New Hampshire if Mr. Trump wins in Iowa.
He was a close third in the RealClearPolitics.com average of polls in New Hampshire on Tuesday, behind Texas Sen.
The FPU/Herald poll also found a large number of Kasich supporters – 21 percent – would vote for a third term for President Obama, compared to 11 percent of Bush supporters who feel the same way about Obama and just 2 percent of Trump backers. Rubio lags behind in fourth with 10.7 percent. Rubio offered only veiled attacks against Cruz and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie over taxes. “So you can read through that what you will”. All told, he has made a total of 167 stops in New Hampshire – more than any other current Democratic or Republican candidate, according to a candidate-tracking website maintained by New England Cable News.
It further contended that Trump’s “bigotry is toxic – and it requires a resounding electoral defeat”.
Kasich, asked about his support for the Common Core education program, said he wants to take 104 federal education programs and “drop them into four buckets and send them to the states because I don’t think Washington can solve all of our education issues”.
While the newspaper noted that Kasich “has a reputation as someone who can occasionally get brusque and tetchy when criticized or questioned, which is not a quality that serves a president well”, it stated that Democrats who knew him in Congress considered him collegial. “And his strong gubernatorial reelection results – he won 64 percent of the vote – show that whatever his temperamental shortcomings, he’s not a polarizing figure”. The difference between Kasich and some of his opponents, however, is that Kasich doesn’t use his bluntness as a campaign prop. He is an old-school, pragmatic leader of high character and decency who doesn’t want to waste valuable time – his or voters’ – by wallowing in the political muck of the moment.
Former New York Gov. George Pataki says he is endorsing Florida Sen.
While the Globe and Monitor have moderate-to-liberal editorial policies, both newspapers called him the best choice for Republican primary voters.
The freshman senator from Florida is trailing in Iowa preference polls behind GOP rivals Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, but he has received more support than either candidate from members of the House and Senate.
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So Kasich is trying to give himself an edge by zeroing in on New Hampshire.
