Ohio Governor John Kasich is back in New Hampshire for his third trip so far this year.
The presidential hopeful has not officially entered the GOP race and says that decision hangs on whether he can raise enough money, but would not specify how much that was.
On Wednesday Kasich mingled with New Hampshire lawmakers at The Barley House in Concord where he touted his record for small business issues and taxes, but ducked invitations from lawmakers to bash other candidates in the race such as Hillary Clinton and Marco Rubio.
“If I have to spend my time trashing people to be successful in this, you can count me out. I want to advance my ideas. There will be plenty of time to sit with someone like Hillary to discuss our differences and how we will lead the country. And it would be really easy for me to say a bunch of stuff but I want to talk about me for a while,” he told a room of dozens of state lawmakers.
Kasich also criticized the policy around campaign finance, saying that elections shouldn’t have to be bought.
“It doesn’t matter to me who gives, if you give and you think you are getting something, you can forget it. It just is not going to happen, and I have a record to show it.”
He also cast himself as eager to work across the aisle. “But at the end of the day, if we solve problems of our urban areas, if we solve the problem of our income equality, if we solve these problems together as Americas, rather than as members of some political party or ideology our country is stronger.”
Kasich was also scheduled to stop in Nashua.
