CLAREMONT, N.H. — It was the most basic of questions for John Kasich: “Sir, how do you pronounce your last name?”
That he’s getting such inquiries just over two months before New Hampshire holds the first 2016 presidential primary shows that Ohio’s governor still has a ways to go in the name recognition department.
But even most in the Buckeye State likely aren’t aware of pronunciations beyond the “rhymes with basic” that Kasich has trotted out for years. Some in the family tree pronounce it KASS-ick and others say KOSS-ick. And it has such alternate spellings as Kasic and Kasics.
The genealogical diversion was part of what perhaps was Kasich’s most personal town hall today in this small town a few miles from the Vermont border.
He talked about questioning why both his twin daughters – who turn 16 on 1-16-16 – are getting new cars for their birthday; wife Karen advised him that things are different than when he grew and that she would take care of it.
Kasich related stories about his grandfather working in the coal mines, and his uncle George missing by one day going down in a troop ship sailing the Atlantic in World War II.
And he was willing to tell audience members directly when he disagreed with them, whether it was the need for a single-payer health-care system or the contention that campaign finance reform is the country’s top domestic issue.
When a recent Dartmouth College graduate from Cincinnati asked about the political implications of Ohio’s Medicaid expansion, Kasich said, “The fact that I’m not going to win something, is that going to keep me from doing something that’s going to save a life?”
All that and he drew hearty, sustained applause when it was over. And he made new fans as well.
“I’m very performance oriented,” said Charlene Lovett, Claremont’s mayor-elect. “I have to say I put a lot of weight behind somebody who’s actually done something.”
Guy Santagate, the town’s city manager for the past 14 years, said, “I thought he impressed the room. He was forthright, and when he disagreed, he disagreed.
“And I’m impressed with the governor.”
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