My Speech for John Kasich at Iona Town Hall Meeting

Dear Friends:
It's not often you get to meet and introduce a candidate for president. This past Saturday I had the honor of introducing John Kasich at his town hall meeting at Iona College. It was exciting and will always be a great memory. The room was packed - standing room only. I believe the crowd was very impressed by Gov. Kasich.
You may be voting for a different candidate in the NY Primary, but I wish to share my reasons why I will be voting for John Kasich in the Republican Primary on April 19 - see my speech from Saturday below.
Thanks,
Jim Maisano

John Kasich Town Hall Meeting - Iona College - 4/9/16

Hello everyone - welcome to this very exciting rally in support of a terrific candidate for president of the United States - Governor John Kasich!

I’m County Legislator Jim Maisano and I serve as Vice Chair of the Westchester County Board of Legislators.

I’m strongly supporting Gov. John Kasich to become our next president.

I’m proud to welcome you all to my hometown - the great City of New Rochelle - known as the Queen City of the Sound. We're so excited to have this event in our city today.

Gov. Kasich picked the perfect place for this town hall meeting, because over the past month this was the campus of champions - both the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Iona College won their conferences and recently competed in the NCAA Tournament. Hopefully, some of this "Iona Magic" will bring success to John Kasich’s campaign.

I’ve been supporting John Kasich for president since the first debate back in August. But frankly, I’ve been a fan for decades. Let me tell you why.

There’s absolutely no question that John Kasich is the most qualified candidate left of the 5 people running for president. And it’s not even close.

John Kasich was one of the important and influential members of the US Congress during his almost two decades of service.

When I started following politics back in the 1980s, I used to see Congressman Kasich on the Sunday morning political shows and said to myself a few times: “this guy is terrific, I hope he runs for president someday.”

As a Congressman, John Kasich had the whole package for success:

• He’s smart & knows the issues inside out.
• He sticks to his core convictions - especially that government must be more fiscally responsible.
• He’s a gentleman that always presents his views in a respectful way.
• He works in a bipartisan way and always brings people together to solve our problems.

With all the anger and negativity out there in this campaign, it’s unfortunate that more voters are not taking the time to learn about John Kasich’s excellent resume. Let’s look at his record in Congress.

• He was known as a fiscal hawk that fought to protect taxpayers’ dollars and eventually became the House Budget Chair.
• He was the chief architect of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, and if our Congress stuck to John Kasich’s law, we would not have a $19 trillion federal debt today.
• He served 18 years on the House Armed Forces Committee and his service was critically important to me. I joined the US Marine Corps in 1984 when he was on this committee.
• After Vietnam, our military was left in a mess.
• When President Reagan made it a priority to improve our military, John Kasich was one of the leaders on the House Armed Services Committee who helped build a bipartisan consensus to make dramatic improvements for those of us serving in the military.
• President Reagan, Congressman Kasich and the Republicans and Democrats in Congress who supported those military reforms were heroes to me back then.
• We received better pay, equipment & training. Our military was modernized. This greatly improved morale. We again became the greatest military in the world.
• John Kasich also fought in a bipartisan way against wasteful spending going to big military contractors for unnecessary weapons, and he demanded that the money go instead to our troops in the field.

So we have a Congressman who balanced the federal budget while ensuring that we improved our military - isn’t that exactly the kind of person we need right now as our next president!

That is exactly who John Kasich is. He’s not yelling and fighting, but is a leader that brings people together, solves problems and makes our country better.

After Congress, John Kasich became one of the most successful and innovative governors in the State of Ohio.

Now, let’s chat about this presidential campaign. Poll after poll demonstrates that John Kasich is the only Republican candidate who can defeat the Democrats. For example, a new Quinnipiac poll shows John Kasich defeating Hillary Clinton by 8 points, while the other Republican candidates lose by 6 or 7 points.

John Kasich is by far the most popular candidate running for president with the voters in the general election - just look at polls - he does best in all of them.

Here’s my final message - Wake Up Republican Party! My party needs to select the candidate with the best chance to win in November, and there’s no question that the candidate is John Kasich.

You heard enough from me. Thanks for coming to the great city of New Rochelle today.

Let me now introduce you to the next president of the United States of America - the outstanding Governor of Ohio - Gov. John Kasich.

County Legislator

Jim Maisano
914-636-1621
CtyLegJimMaisano@gmail.com