RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
Here's another note on next week's Iowa caucuses. One candidate who will not be there is Ohio Governor John Kasich. He plans to hold a town hall in New Hampshire that night. NPR's Asma Khalid reports on why Kasich is spending so much time in New Hampshire and whether it's paying off.
ASMA KHALID, BYLINE: John Kasich has held 80 town halls in New Hampshire this campaign season. That's more than any other candidate. He's spending so much time here, even he jokes about it.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN KASICH: I just glad you don't have an income tax here because I might be qualified as a resident.
(LAUGHTER)
KHALID: Kasich's events are intimate. Imagine about a hundred people gathered in a tavern, some of them sitting on leather couches around a fireplace. He doesn't give long, prepared stump speeches. He talks to people and answers questions. Karen Grybko appreciates that.
KAREN GRYBKO: He's not loud. (Laughter). He doesn't scream. He doesn't put anybody down. You know, there's a lot of negativity in the campaigns, both the Democrats and the Republicans, and he only tells us why we should vote for him and not why we shouldn't vote for somebody else. And, you know, I guess I like that.
KHALID: Grybko is an independent but she says the last time she voted for a Republican presidential candidate was 1980 for Ronald Reagan. The people I met at Kasich town halls run the ideological gamut - lifelong Republicans, self-described independents and even traditional Democrats, like Linda Bimbo.
LINDA BIMBO: I really came in kind of undecided, but I love this guy.
KHALID: I asked her what exactly sold her.
BIMBO: I'll tell you, the one thing that made the biggest difference for me is, he talks about working both sides of the aisle and knowing that you have to have cooperation.
KHALID: Many voters who hear the Ohio governor in person describe him as being reasonable. Republican Tom Eifler says Kasich is competent, but he still has some reservations.
TOM EIFLER: I think he comes across as typically Midwestern likable. I don't think that he did a fabulous job on every single question.
KHALID: Don Grosso is also undecided. He says Kasich is his top choice for now, but he wants to see how he does in the polls in the next couple of weeks.
DON GROSSO: I want a winner. I want somebody who's going to be whoever the Democratic nominee is.
KHALID: And Grosso says he's not a hundred percent sure Kasich can. In recent weeks, it seems like Kasich has been experiencing a bit of a micro surge in the New Hampshire polls and he has the endorsement of some high-profile local newspapers including The Boston Globe. But Andy Smith, with the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, is skeptical of calling it a bump. He points out that essentially every poll since July has shown Donald Trump clearly leading the pack.
ANDY SMITH: You've got Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Chris Christie and John Kasich all essentially clumped together in a second-place position.
KHALID: So here's the big question. Even if Kasich finishes in a respectable second-place in New Hampshire, what's next for his campaign? Again Andy Smith.
SMITH: I think what you'll see is one of those four more mainstream Republicans - Christie, Kasich, Bush or Rubio - finish better than the others and try to convince the other candidates through the press and through pressure within the party to drop out and to solidify their support behind them. Then fortunately, they're all doing the same thing.
KHALID: So Kasich is trying to give himself a bit of an edge by blanketing the state, and yesterday he was the only candidate in town so essentially he had the voters and the local media to himself. Asma Khalid, NPR News, Concord, N.H.