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NEWS

Fight against Donald Trump has moved beyond John Kasich, without giving him momentum

Chrissie Thompson and Fredreka Schouten
cthompson@enquirer.com; fschoute@usatoday.com
Ohio Gov. John Kasich speaks to young professionals during a Dec. 10 campaign stop in Manchester, New Hampshire.

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – To John Kasich, weeks of attacks on Donald Trump had validated his leadership, as Republicans around the country started to denounce Trump for his proposal to ban Muslim immigration.

“People are now beginning to wake up and say that this dividing is not acceptable, but I’ve been saying it for weeks, before anybody else even thought to pay attention to it,” Kasich told reporters Tuesday after a presidential campaign stop in this early-primary state. “I’m glad I started it.”

Kasich’s campaign had grabbed media attention with a web video in which a supporter essentially compared Trump to Adolf Hitler. The political action committee supporting him had announced a $2.5 million campaign to attack Trump. He’d called Trump’s ideas “crazy,” warred with him on Twitter and sparred with him in back-to-back debates.

Yet with the Muslim immigration policy unveiled Monday, the Trump-Hitler comparisons were coming more frequently, many without mentioning Kasich. Political donors and better-funded PACs were getting in on the anti-Trump act. And other candidates, many polling better than Kasich, were grabbing airtime for finally denouncing the billionaire leading GOP polls.

The anti-Trump movement has grown beyond Kasich and his allies, and after weeks of attacks, his polling hasn’t really budged.

No matter, advisers and allies say. Attacking Trump was the right thing to do, and it couldn’t have hurt Kasich. And future anti-Trump campaigns may gain steam and attract new donors.

But so far, the approach hasn’t provided the momentum boost the Ohio governor’s presidential campaign needs to contend for the GOP nomination in 2016.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on Dec. 10.

‘Barely visible’ effort from Kasich

Attacks on Trump aren’t likely to work on his supporters – that much is clear. And without a major television push, the efforts by Kasich and his allies haven’t gotten through to many people who would be inclined to agree with them.

Kasich’s effort is “barely visible,” said Fred Malek, a veteran Republican fundraiser who remains unaffiliated in the 2016 race.

The Enquirer interviewed several Trump fans Monday at his rally in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, about Kasich’s approach. Some didn’t recognize Kasich’s name, and most hadn’t heard about the Ohio governor’s campaign’s anti-Trump videos, which have only run on the Internet.

The most famous, which got Kasich some much-needed positive news stories after he got booed in the Milwaukee debate last month, paraphrases the “Then they came for me” Holocaust poem by German pastor Martin Niemoller. The video has about 361,000 views on YouTube.

“You might not care if Donald Trump says Muslims must register with their government, because you’re not one,” reads retired Air Force Col. Tom Moe, also mentioning Trump’s comments about Hispanics, Black Lives Matter protesters and journalists. “If he keeps going … he just might get around to you. And you better hope that there’s someone left to help you.”

“Hitler was completely different,” said 23-year-old Rick Pennington, of Charleston, South Carolina. “He brainwashed people.”

“If you can’t talk about yourself, the only way you can get yourself in the news is by slamming other people,” said his friend, 23-year-old John Patel, of Charleston.

The anti-Trump videos and debate attacks could help attract the two-thirds of GOP voters who aren’t supporting the controversial billionaire, Kasich’s advisers say. But the next day, two hours up the coast in Myrtle Beach, at a gathering of pro-Kasich and solidly anti-Trump voters, most people who spoke with The Enquirer said they’d prefer if Kasich stopped attacking and focused on his own positions.

“I don’t think attacking ever helps,” said Shirley Chandler, of Pawleys Island, South Carolina. Of Trump, she said: “He may take himself out.”

For what it’s worth, voters nearly always say they don’t like negative ads, but campaign operatives of all affiliations say the ads usually work nonetheless.

But so far, Kasich has remained well-below the frontrunners in national GOP polls, slipping from about 3 percent to about 2 percent, while Trump has extended his lead, receiving about 30 percent support. In New Hampshire, whose pragmatic first-in-the-nation primary voters give Kasich his best shot, his polling has held steady at about 7 or 8 percent. Meanwhile, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie and Ted Cruz have climbed ahead of Kasich, but still trail Trump’s 27 to 32 percent.

Kasich talks with reporters after speaking at a campaign stop on Dec. 10.

‘Put a steak in Trump’

Kasich’s PAC is continuing its attacks, promising to launch a new anti-Trump TV ad on Monday, which will eventually share time with positive pro-Kasich spots. Last week it launched an online video and game mocking Trump’s now-discontinued brand of meat, asking Republicans to “put a steak in Trump.”

The PAC boasted of receiving several new donors in the early days after it announced its anti-Trump plans, yet it doesn’t appear to have galvanized the flood of multi-million-dollar donors that might eventually coalesce behind a leading effort to deliver a knockout punch against Trump.

It’s entirely appropriate for individual candidates such as Kasich to challenge Trump’s status as the front-runner “particularly when the front-runner is making outrageous statements,” fundraiser Malek said.

Still, “probably the only person with the money to do this effectively is (Jeb) Bush and his super PAC,” he said.

With Trump’s anti-Muslim comments Monday, Bush’s PAC has started to spend against the frontrunner, as major donors around the country start to discuss jumping into the fray to stop Trump.

Right to Rise – whose $103 million in fundraising through July nearly tripled all other candidates’ PAC hauls – this week started spending on a TV commercial attacking the national security credentials of three Bush opponents – Trump, Rubio and Cruz.

The ad, released just hours after Trump’s call for a ban on Muslim’s entering the United States, shows footage of the Oval Office and opens with: “When the attacks come here, the person behind this desk will have to protect your family. Will he be impulsive and reckless like Donald Trump?”

Last Sunday, a top Bush donor, Mike Fernandez, a Florida billionaire, took out a full-page ad in The Miami Herald, blasting Trump. Fernandez donated $3 million earlier this year to Right to Rise.

And a bigger attack could be on the horizon. Republican operative Liz Mair is planning what The Wall Street Journal recently described as a “guerilla campaign” to derail Trump’s candidacy helped by a team of secret donors, the paper reported.

“As a concerned citizen, it is troubling to me to see someone like Donald Trump fuel this divisiveness against women, our friends of all religious backgrounds, any ethnic group he does not align with, and anyone who disagrees with his point of view and bait Americans into supporting him,” Fernandez said in a statement provided to USA TODAY.

“I am afraid this country and our world cannot bounce back if someone like him becomes president.”