Photo credit: Dave Davidson – Prezography.com
Ohio Governor John Kasich running a campaign that only focused on winning Ohio has caused problems for him in other state contests. Since he never built an organization to compete nationally it is not a surprise that he has issues in states beyond the early states and Ohio.
He faced a ballot challenge in Pennsylvania which was dropped when Marco Rubio suspended his campaign. While Kasich has not had much more success than Donald Trump in wooing delegates throughout April in different district and state conventions. In Oregon his campaign made a huge blunder according to The Eugene Register-Guard. His campaign missed the deadline to appear in the voter pamphlets that the state distributes.
It’s up to candidates to get their photos and statements into the pamphlet, which is one of the most cost-effective political advertising tools in the state. Each Oregon household — roughly 1.5 million in total — gets a free copy of the pamphlet. Presidential candidates pay $3,500 to put their half-page statement in the pamphlet, or else submit 500 supporters’ signatures and get their statement included for free.
Oops.
Ted Cruz had agreed to pull his resources and campaign out of Oregon and New Mexico while Kasich agreed to do the same in Indiana to give each candidate a better chance at blocking Donald Trump from those states’ delegates. Oregon has 28 delegates up for grabs that are allocated proportionately based on the statewide vote. Some delegates can become unbound if their pledged candidate drops out after the 1st ballot and releases their delegate or fails to receive 35% of the votes for nomination, all delegates are unbound after two ballots according to Oregon Republican Party rules.
With this blunder, and based off the campaign Kasich has run thus far, I think it is fair to ask how equipped would he be to run a national campaign in the general election? In terms of campaign strength he hasn’t demonstrated that he is ready to meet the challenge.