Gov. Kasich, on Stump in Claremont, Gets Folksy — and Edgy

Claremont — Republican presidential candidate John Kasich did his best, as has become standard in town hall events, to show his down-home, just-a-regular-person credentials Saturday morning during a campaign stop at Claremont Savings Bank Community Center.



Wearing a white button-down shirt and gray trousers, the Ohio governor recounted the poverty his father experienced growing up as the son of an immigrant coal miner. He invited the youngest spectator in the room, 10-year-old Anna Numme, up for a hug after she asked him how he’d handle the Common Core education standards.



And, at the end of an introduction by Claremont Mayor-elect Charlene Lovett, just after she described how Kasich had “turned an $8 billion deficit in Ohio into a $2 billion surplus,” he jumped in and took the microphone.



“You forgot the part about ‘and he’s a great guy,’ ” Kasich quipped to the standing-room-only audience.



Kasich spent part of the morning describing his goals, which include reducing taxes, cleaning up the tax code, shifting programs such as highways and education out of Washington, D.C., and strengthening the nation’s defense. He touted his ability to get things done as governor and as a member of the U.S. House Armed Services and Budget committees during his time in Congress, taking opportunities to tie national issues to local ones.



With an electronic federal deficit clock as his backdrop, Kasich said balancing the federal budget is “really hard because people really don’t want to make decisions on spending.”



Kasich, who favors a constitutional amendment requiring the federal budget be balanced, described his role in creating a balanced budget while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives. When he and his “pals” left, that ended, and a projected $5 billion surplus “all got spent,” he said.



“How is your budget?” he asked Mayor-elect Lovett, a city councilor and former Republican state representative.



“It’s tight,” she replied.



Then he asked Guy Santagate, Claremont’s city manager, the same question.



“It’s great,” Santagate said.



Kasich described his achievements in Ohio — cutting taxes, spurring the growth of about 380,000 jobs in a state that had lost 350,000, and tackling mental health and addiction. “We are forming a welfare system that says we’ll help you, but you have to help yourself,” he said, later pointing out that some people need time and support before they are able to do that.



He also alluded to his thick skin. At the end of his first year as governor he was extremely unpopular, said Kasich, but he won re-election by a 31-point margin. The period of unpopularity “didn’t really matter to me because (political leadership) is not a popularity contest.”



Kasich brought up the couple who allegedly carried out the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings. Reports indicate they were communicating with people who were being watched by law enforcement, and if they used encrypted communication, those exchanges would have been undetectable, said Kasich, who noted the conflicting demands of enabling law enforcement to do its job and protecting individual rights. “I don’t want the government nosing into everything I do,” he said.



In a short interview after the meeting, Kasich responded to reporters’ questions about the shootings and what can or should be done.



The encryption issue needs to be sorted out with law enforcement, security and technical companies, and “obviously” the need to tighten up visas should be considered, he said. “I think Sen. (Dianne) Feinstein (D-Calif.) has talked about doing that, and I would really encourage it. We need to be able to protect our borders.”



On intelligence gathering, he stressed the importance of balancing civil rights with the need to be more effective in disrupting terrorist plots. “Part of the problem is a lot of these laws were built around technologies that didn’t exist.”



To address mass shootings, the country needs to address problems such as alienation and mental illness, he said. “Gun control is not going to work against people who want to commit a terrorist act. … There are deep societal issues that need to be looked at.”



In an interview before the event, Stanley Hutchings, of Walpole, N.H., said he wanted to hear how Kasich would use his executive experience, something of a rarity in the Republican field of candidates, if he were elected, especially given the contentious political landscape in Washington.



During the event, Hutchings asked Kasich how, as president, he would get things done.



Kasich said his approach would include bringing some Democrats in, making a plan, using passion and trying to get the public on board, he said.



“I’ve done this before,” he added, describing the process of hammering out the federal budget agreement. “We shut down the government, and I was the chief negotiator. We went through a really tough time, but we got it done.”



During the event, Kasich kept up a steady interaction with the audience of about 60 people, asking questions both personal and political. Though apparently well-received by the crowd, judging by the occasional laughter, his folksy approach had a definite edge.



Quechee resident Jason Purdy described the disadvantage he faces as a small-business owner. Health care is “not a level playing field,” and he is losing good employees to larger businesses and organizations that can offer better benefits, he said.



Kasich responded by saying he opposes a single-payer system, like Canada’s, and that he wants to cut health care costs. He used the example of an Ohio hospital that has found a way to cut back on the number of children admitted for asthma, he said. With fewer claims, the insurance companies have bigger profits, some of which they share with the hospital, he said. “Those kinds of things have a downward pressure on the cost of health care.”



Purdy, who owns an assisted living facility in Littleton, N.H., asked again about leveling the playing field, but Kasich said he disagrees with the premise. “I don’t want to take from someone else and give it to you.”



During the exchange, Kasich asked about Purdy’s children and grandchildren and whether the woman he was sitting with was his wife. She was.



She’s “a lot younger than you, isn’t she?” Kasich teased, and then told a self-deprecating story in which his own wife said he was “old.”



Tyler Kuhn, an Ohio native and recent Dartmouth College graduate, noted the governor’s decision to expand Medicaid in Ohio and asked how he responded to charges he wasn’t conservative enough to win a Republican nomination.



“How many people do you know who were the chief architects of balancing the federal budget” and who completely turned a state’s finances around? Kasich responded. Who is “a bigger advocate of school choice?” he asked.



Then, re garding the Medicaid expansion, he said, “When you grow an economy and things are going well, you can’t leave anybody behind.”



Kasich , who has been polling in the single digits for most of the campaign, including a Nov. 22 Suffolk University/ Boston Globe poll of 500 New Hampshire residents that put him at 9 percent, also bantered with Kuhn, who was wearing a Dartmouth sweatshirt.



“I’m sorry you couldn’t get into Ohio State,” he joked, naming his own alma mater and fist bumping Kuhn, who said he’d voted for Kusich twice and called himself one of Kasich’s constituents.



“You’re not my constituent,” the governor shot back. “You live here.” (Kuhn actually lives in Connecticut.)



And, perhaps inadvertently, Kasich highlighted a tension that has been apparent during Lovett’s tenure as a city councilor



Following an audience member’s question about Syria, Kasich said increased U.S. military involvement in that country is inevitable and desirable. “The longer you wait,” the more complex the situation will become, he said. In the process of answering the question, Kasich asked Lovett, who has occasionally tangled with Santagate, about her 22-year career in the military and her service as an intelligence officer in the Army.



Then he turned to Santagate.



“We’re going to keep you in our prayers because I think you’re going to have a tough time with this mayor,” Kasich told him.



“I already have,” Santagate replied as the audience laughed again.



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Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.





