Wait a second, Kasich has lower approvals than Trump?!
Not saying the poll is accurate but.... Kasich will eventually have to deal with the fact that he can't play both sides and get everyone to like him. He took a gamble on the presidential race/resistance and it backfired badly. If he continues to double down he'll end up looking like the new Lincoln Chafee: in the end neither side will support him.
As it applies to this race, Kasich's stooge candidate Mike Gibbons will get nowhere with a solely negative campaign against Mandel. Mandel has many shortcomings, but most of them stem from his own solely negative campaign against Brown last time around. Brown is clearly the favorite right now as an incumbent running in what ought to be a good year for the Democrats, but Mandel's toxicity is highly overrated considering there's not much in particular most people remember about him that makes him toxic.
For Brown to win comfortably, he needs to maintain his WWC base, which is what got him elected in the first place. If he can combine that with some suburban anti-Trump support, he's golden. But if he goes all-in only for the latter, he could screw it up.
