Kasich vows more aggressive approach

By Jack Torry

The Columbus Dispatch

HUGER, S.C.

As former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush assailed Gov. John Kasich on Wednesday for using federal dollars to expand health coverage to low-income people, an emboldened Kasich vowed a more-aggressive approach regarding his rivals, saying he will not be “a pincushion or a marshmallow” if his record is attacked.

Declaring he “shocked everybody” with his second-place finish in the New Hampshire Republican primary on Tuesday, an exuberant Kasich launched a four-day blitz of South Carolina, a conservative state which presents him with a far greater challenge than New Hampshire, where his relatively moderate message resonated with independent voters.

Functioning on just a couple of hours of sleep after a late-night flight from New Hampshire to South Carolina, Kasich was greeted by both a crowd of 150 people in a pizza restaurant near Charleston and a biting attack from Bush, who needs a strong performance in South Carolina if he hopes to win the Republican presidential nomination.

In an appearance in suburban Charleston, Bush launched a direct attack against Kasich’s controversial decision to accept hundreds of millions of federal dollars to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income people. That money was made available through the 2010 health law championed by President Barack Obama and sharply opposed by many conservatives.

Bush said under the law “we’re not reforming Medicaid, we’re only expanding it. We’re going to make more and more people dependent upon government, and the fact that most of it is being funded by Washington, not the state, is not relevant here. It’s still government. Someone has to pay for it.

“Compare that to Gov. Kasich, where he led the charge to expand Medicaid and is quite proud of it,” Bush said. “I wouldn’t be proud of that, to be honest with you.”

Kasich did not directly respond to Bush’s attack, but he signaled he would vigorously defend his record. Referring to the fact that he grew up in the scrappy western Pennsylvania town of McKees Rocks, Kasich said, “You don’t come into McKees Rocks and mess with us. Don’t mess with me.

“So I’m not going to be a pincushion or a marshmallow, but I’m also not going to spend my time trying to trash other people,” Kasich told the crowd at the pizza restaurant.

As he was in New Hampshire, Kasich faces the likelihood he will be outspent in South Carolina. So far, the super-PAC supporting Kasich has only booked $140,000 in television commercials in South Carolina, although the organization almost certainly will spend more money than that on advertising.

By contrast, the super-PAC backing Bush has booked $1.9 million in TV commercials between now and the Feb. 20 primary.