Cincinnati, Ohio — John Kasich has been a lot of things: congressman, Fox News host, banking executive, presidential candidate. These days, he is the Ohio GOP’s gubernatorial nominee in one of the nation’s most-watched races. He’s also very pumped up.
As he leaps out of a staffer’s SUV on a quiet downtown street, he’s rushes to shake hands with locals, and chats excitedly with campaign volunteers, who are decked out in bleach-white ‘Kasich-Taylor’ T-shirts. Though he’s been a fixture in Buckeye State politics for decades, Kasich couldn’t be less like a bloodless, establishment pol on the trail. His words come fast, and his thin, 58-year-old frame moves quickly. His college-age aides scramble to keep up.
Earlier on Monday, Kasich’s navy blue “Leading Ohio” campaign bus began a three-day trek in Westerville, just outside Columbus. There, at the same spot where he launched his run for governor in June 2009, Kasich, like he does at most stops, delivered a barnburner of a stump speech. His fiery attacks, soaked with Tea Party rhetoric, slammed Gov. Ted Strickland, the Democratic incumbent, President Obama, and even Bill Clinton, his old foe from the 1990s.
Now in Cincinnati, at the state’s southwestern tip, Kasich is still fired up. At the day’s final rally, inside of Memorial Hall, Kasich tells a group of about 600 supporters that Strickland is fading fast. His speech mirrors the themes that he’s been hammering all day, but he blends in a few fresh cracks. “They say, ‘Oh, Johnny is going to break into your houses and steal your guns. Johnny is going to go to your teachers and take away their pensions,’” he says. “All they can get is a couple of union thugs standing on a street corner; they can’t get a crowd anymore.”
For months, the Kasich-Strickland race has been tight. In the campaign’s final week, Kasich seems to be holding onto a slim lead. According to a Quinnipiac poll out this morning, Kasich now leads Strickland by six points among likely voters, 49 percent to 43 percent. Among independents, Kasich leads by five, 47 percent to 42 percent.
Outside of the hall, Kasich tells National Review Online that he is going to win. “We are going to win because we have a lot of intensity,” he says. “We have to get our people out, but they are going out,” he laughs, looking at the pack of volunteers nearby. “I’m very optimistic. I feel good about where we are.”
Kasich, who became House Budget Committee chairman following the GOP’s 1994 sweep, says 2010, in some ways, echoes that year. “I’m not a political scientist, but it feels like people want to make a statement and very much want to be heard,” he says. “They’re frustrated and worried about their children’s future. There is a motivation here that is probably even deeper than the motivation in ’94. I think in ’94, there was a sense that we wanted to throw out a party that had been in power for 40 years. I think this is different: This is about the values we hold, about what makes America great.”
“This is obviously a pivotal race,” Kasich continues, before heading to his next event. “Obama is going to have been here twelve times. This is ground zero. . . . This has always been a swing state. I think we now have a better environment. We’re right where we want to be with seven days to go.”