With his campaign gaining momentum, Ohio Gov. John Kasich has scheduled a town hall meeting on Monday in Macomb County, a further indication that he has set his sights on Midwestern states.
Kasich will speak from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Macomb County GOP headquarters in Utica.
The governor has staked his claim as the moderate voice in the Republican presidential primaries, and Macomb County, once the home of the Reagan Democrats, could be fertile ground. Macomb is a key swing county in Michigan, a place where ticket-splitting is still common in general elections.
The newest Michigan poll, conducted Feb. 2-4, put Kasich in fourth place at just 6 percent, with Donald Trump far ahead at 35 percent and Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio tied at 21 percent. But that Inside Michigan Politics survey was taken before the New Hampshire primary shook up the GOP race, giving Kasich a burst of publicity following his second-place finish.
The Granite State also dealt a blow to Rubio’s chances, ended Cruz’s momentum, and led Chris Chistie and Carly Fiorina to abandon their campaigns.
Kasich may be hoping for crossover votes from moderate Democrats in Michigan, just as John McCain accomplished to some degree in the state’s 2008 primary. Voters in Michigan do not register to vote with a party affiliation and they choose which primary, Democrat or Republican, in which to cast their vote.
In New Hampshire, in the final days before Tuesday’s election, some “Democrats for Kasich” signs began popping up on the snowy landscape. The New York Times reported that some Democrats view Kasich as the most pragmatic candidate running:
“Mr. Kasich has some qualities that appeal to (Democratic) voters: He expanded Medicaid in Ohio, over the objections of Republican legislators, and he often speaks passionately on the trail of the need to help the poor and drug-addicted. He has made fun of hard-right proposals like abolishing the Internal Revenue Service. But he opposes abortion except in limited cases, supports the death penalty and frequently boasts of his budget-cutting efforts. A near-constant presence at Mr. Kasich’s events is a clock that shows the national debt ticking ever upward.”
For those planning to attend Monday’s event, one caution: The Macomb GOP HQ has a fairly obscure location. It is located at 13441 Hall Road (M-59), at the northwest corner of the Schoenherr Road intersection — at the north end of the Shelby Corners shopping center.
Interestingly, Kasich’s Michigan campaign is being run by Jeff Timmer who is/was working with Paul Mitchell, who, alongside Candice Miller, whose Macomb-based congressional seat he wants, endorsed Carly Fiorina. I wonder if Mitchell will come out Monday and make an endorsement of Kasich. Kasich’s campaign manager is John Weaver, a legendary, some say notorious, Republican operative who is closely tied to John Yob. Yob was Rand Paul’s national political director.