4-way fight

GOP rivals in 4-way fight for third in New Hampshire

By Daniel Strauss

The race for the Republican nomination might be turning into a two-man contest in Iowa, but here in New Hampshire, four contenders vying to be the mainstream alternative to Donald Trump or Ted Cruz still have a fighting chance.

Even with the Iowa caucuses less than a week away, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush and Chris Christie are dedicating significant time to the first primary state because, for at least two of them, a finish outside the top three could spell the end.

While Rubio and Bush aren’t ignoring the front-runners — Trump and Cruz — Kasich and Christie spent much of Monday and the weekend picking apart their competition in the more mainstream lane, looking to steal a voter here and there to squeeze out that coveted third-place finish.

“I really don’t have a biggest rival in this primary,” Christie, the governor of New Jersey, said at a stop in New Hampshire, before pointing to Kasich, Ohio’s governor. “I want to be the No. 1 governor coming out of New Hampshire. So you can read through that what you will.”

A day earlier, at a watch party hosted by prominent New Hampshire Republican activist Ellen Christo, Christie took a swipe at both of the senators in contention, too.

“The candidates in our race who are first term United States senators — Sen. Rubio, Sen. Cruz — good people, but not prepared to be president of the United States. Sen. Rubio served in the legislature and then in his first term in the United States Senate, and what about that experience makes, prepares you to sit in the chair in the Oval Office and get the job done?” Christie asked.

His is not the only campaign talking about the competition. Earlier on Monday, Kasich spoke at a Rotary Club event in Manchester and while the governor refrained from naming his rivals, his campaign put pamphlets at each table that compared Kasich with Bush. “Jeb Bush Can’t Buy Momentum Like This,” the pamphlet declared.

“Jeb Bush and his friends are spending millions trashing other Republicans including John Kasich,” the pamphlet read. ”But attack ads don't change the facts: John Kasich showed how conservative policies create jobs, opportunity and strength; he’ll do it again as president.”

Don’t read too much into it, Kasich’s campaign said; it blamed Bush and an aligned super PAC for starting the contrast war.

“I think that’s pretty clear,” said Kasich campaign spokesman Chris Schrimpf. “It’s sad to see. They’re going after us, they’re going after Rubio, they’re going after Christie. And we’re talking about ourselves. We respond when they come after us but our message is working.”

That’s not how Bush’s campaign sees it.

“I can’t recall the last time Jeb mentioned John Kasich,” Bush communications director Tim Miller said. “No doubt it is a four-way scrum where there will be some comparing and contrasting. We are focusing most of our attention on Trump and demonstrating that Jeb is the proven conservative to take him on.”

It’s hard for a New Hampshire voter to avoid any of this. On the last few blocks to the Christie event on Sunday, Bush and Kasich lawn signs littered the curbs. Bush and Kasich ads dominated commercial breaks during the Patriots-Broncos game.

Rubio’s team, likewise, argues that the senator isn’t running against Kasich, Christie or Bush in particular in New Hampshire but did complain that other campaigns are attacking him.

“If you look at Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush’s super PACs — Hillary [Clinton], Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush are all going after Marco Rubio,” Michael Zona, a Rubio spokesman in New Hampshire said. “The super PACs are doing it, too. It’s the one thing that unites them. I really would say, though, that we’re not competing to win one lane like some of the other candidates. We’re actually running a campaign that is meant to appeal to all parts of the party.”

Zona pointed to a Rubio campaign ad that said Bush, Cruz, and Clinton have one thing in common: fear of Rubio.

Meanwhile, a few days earlier, the pro-Bush Right to Rise super PAC pushed out a new ad focused on Kasich.

“John Kasich: wrong on New Hampshire issues,” the voiceover said at the ad’s end.