Kasich’s Iowa goal: ‘Decent showing,’ rally in New Hampshire

JOHNSTON - Ohio Gov. John Kasich wants to make a 'decent showing” in Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses, but the logistics of campaigning in New Hampshire offers a better opportunity for his bid for the Republican nomination for president.

Kasich, who was making his sixth visit of the 2016 campaign cycle to Iowa - fewer than even Jeb Bush - said that he's not writing off Iowa. But New Hampshire's smaller population and geographic size make it easier to campaign intensely there.

'It's a condensed state,” Kasich said about the upper New England state, which is 9,350 square miles - one-sixth the size of Iowa. 'To go from one part of Iowa to another, you have to take an airplane sometimes.”

Iowa's population is more than twice that of New Hampshire's, he added during taping Monday of Iowa Public Television's 'Iowa Press.”

Also, Iowa's 1,862 precinct caucuses require a different kind of campaign than a state with a primary election and 1.3 million people - less than half Iowa's population.

'I can meet 1.3 million people, and probably will three or four times,” Kasich said.

So he'll visit Iowa 'as often as I can, but there's only one of me to go around,” Kasich said, noting that he has full-time duties as governor of a large swing state. 'We consider this to be important, and we'll put more time and effort and resources in.”

Although he said he didn't like the format of the first three GOP debates, Kasich didn't think any of the questions asked during last week's CNBC debate were 'below the belt.”

'I don't think Harry Truman could get elected under a 30-second scenario or a 60-second scenario, but that's what we have,” Kasich said. 'What am I supposed to do? Go around attacking people because everyone else is doing it? I'm not interested in doing that.”

Besides, he said, taking questions comes with the job.

'I'm the governor of Ohio, and I get questions all of the time,” he said when asked about the idea that candidates should be able to know the specific questions ahead of the debate.

Later, Kasich attended a private fundraiser hosted by Cedar Rapids businessman John Smith.