Ohio Megathread

[IceSpear]

Wasn't it always a toss up?

[IceSpear]

Because as we all know, being in a car with a woman who isn't your wife automatically makes her a prostitute or a mistress.

This is stupid and a nonstory. Feel free to rub it in my face if I'm proven wrong and a smoking gun emerges.

[IceSpear]

That caller had nothing better to do than stalk FitzGerald and accuse him of cheating on his wife of 23 years? Really? He has kids about to go into college and a family to support. Come on.....just really? Whoever that caller is should be completely ashamed of himself for even insinuating that.

He didn't "stalk" FitzGerald. He found FitzGerald cheating in a parking lot. So the caller should be ashamed about that?

I would take nothing of this because something the Dispatch fails to note is that it was just a talk he was having with a friend from a delegation trying to meet up with the other delegates to find the hotel and even an officer noticed it right on the spot. He wasn't charged with a crime or anything. There's nothing scandalous out of this and just because it happened at night doesn't automatically mean he's up to something. FitzGerald's personal life shouldn't even be any of Ohio's damn business.

It's just a friend from a delegation trying to meet up with the other delegates to find the hotel. At 4:30 in the morning. And there were some "back and forth" activities.

If the ORP use Fitzy's personal life as their next assault line, that's just low on their part, but it will be their loss. They've already tried to sabotage his campaign with a fake site comparing FitzGerald to Jimmy Dimorra, so I wouldn't expect anything less from them. Kasich is involved in plenty of scandals himself and he's somehow still above water, so I don't expect this to make an impact on the actual race, and Republicans who helped leak this "dirt" on FitzGerald will just look like disrespectful savages in the long run if they do go after this.

You do realize many other campaigns have done this? It's not news. This is one from Carter campaign supporters. Politicians have attacked other politicians for cheating before. The Republicans are pretty happy they've been able to get this information because their chances of winning has gone up.

"He found FitzGerald cheating in a parking lot"?

Is there any ACTUAL proof of this, other than the ramblings of the 911 caller? FitzGerald was not charged with any crime, and the official police report says they were just talking. For all we know the guy is a prude who could've just automatically assumed guy + girl + car + 4:30 AM = OMG SECX.

FitzGerald has literally never even drank alcohol or smoked weed, verified via polygraph. Perhaps we should wait for actual evidence before assuming he had an affair. I doubt any will emerge, and this will be forgotten in a week.

Not that it matters, since his chances to win were pretty slim anyway.

[IceSpear]

For all we know the guy is a prude who could've just automatically assumed guy + girl + car + 4:30 AM = OMG SECX.

This is generally accurate.

Who cares if it is? It's not proof of anything. I've been alone in cars really late/early with platonic female friends, no sex was involved.

The implication in this "story" that a man cannot be alone with a female friend without sex being involved is quite frankly disgusting. The only thin shred of evidence anyone has to go on is the SUSPICION of the 911 caller.

[IceSpear]

That caller had nothing better to do than stalk FitzGerald and accuse him of cheating on his wife of 23 years? Really? He has kids about to go into college and a family to support. Come on.....just really? Whoever that caller is should be completely ashamed of himself for even insinuating that.

He didn't "stalk" FitzGerald. He found FitzGerald cheating in a parking lot. So the caller should be ashamed about that?

I would take nothing of this because something the Dispatch fails to note is that it was just a talk he was having with a friend from a delegation trying to meet up with the other delegates to find the hotel and even an officer noticed it right on the spot. He wasn't charged with a crime or anything. There's nothing scandalous out of this and just because it happened at night doesn't automatically mean he's up to something. FitzGerald's personal life shouldn't even be any of Ohio's damn business.

It's just a friend from a delegation trying to meet up with the other delegates to find the hotel. At 4:30 in the morning. And there were some "back and forth" activities.

If the ORP use Fitzy's personal life as their next assault line, that's just low on their part, but it will be their loss. They've already tried to sabotage his campaign with a fake site comparing FitzGerald to Jimmy Dimorra, so I wouldn't expect anything less from them. Kasich is involved in plenty of scandals himself and he's somehow still above water, so I don't expect this to make an impact on the actual race, and Republicans who helped leak this "dirt" on FitzGerald will just look like disrespectful savages in the long run if they do go after this.

You do realize many other campaigns have done this? It's not news. This is one from Carter campaign supporters. Politicians have attacked other politicians for cheating before. The Republicans are pretty happy they've been able to get this information because their chances of winning has gone up.

"He found FitzGerald cheating in a parking lot"?

Is there any ACTUAL proof of this, other than the ramblings of the 911 caller? FitzGerald was not charged with any crime, and the official police report says they were just talking. For all we know the guy is a prude who could've just automatically assumed guy + girl + car + 4:30 AM = OMG SECX.

FitzGerald has literally never even drank alcohol or smoked weed, verified via polygraph. Perhaps we should wait for actual evidence before assuming he had an affair. I doubt any will emerge, and this will be forgotten in a week.

Not that it matters, since his chances to win were pretty slim anyway.

My opinion of FitGerald would go up significantly if it is found out that he really did boff the cute little colleen.  I mean seriously my god, the man is portrayed as Squared Times Infinity.

And some people seriously wonder why he is failing to connect with the average Ohioan?

LOL, no arguments there...I'm just using his baffling purity for more evidence why this is probably much ado about nothing.

[IceSpear]

I know he is busy in Pennsylvania right now but I wonder if we could get Tom Wolf to run in place of FitzGerald. Wolf has proven himself to be a VERY strong candidate and I have no doubt he would dispatch Kasich. He also has a drivers license and doesn't bang random women in an Applebee's parking lot at 4:30 in the morning.

I wouldn't say Wolf is busy, in fact I think he has quite a lot of free time to devote to Ohio considering the status of PA-Gov right now...

[IceSpear]

I would think the driver's license thing would hurt FitzGerald more than the fake affair.

[IceSpear]

At the top of the ticket, Kasich raised $1.5M while FitzGerald only raised $55K.

#FitzMentum

But seriously, why is the RGA spending money here? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they're blowing it, but it seems rather incompetent.

[IceSpear]

At the top of the ticket, Kasich raised $1.5M while FitzGerald only raised $55K.

#FitzMentum

But seriously, why is the RGA spending money here? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they're blowing it, but it seems rather incompetent.

He raised it, not spent it.  He's probably going to hand it out to Republicans who need it, which is bad news. 

I was referring to the RGA ad Adam referenced that was attacking FitzGerald.

[IceSpear]

At the top of the ticket, Kasich raised $1.5M while FitzGerald only raised $55K.

#FitzMentum

But seriously, why is the RGA spending money here? Don't get me wrong, I'm happy they're blowing it, but it seems rather incompetent.

Well Christie campaigned with Kasich and Portman last week (at the onset of the Supreme Court screwing us over and siding with the Ohio GOP on cutting a week of early voting), and he pretty much stated why he's spending $ here. Kasich has always been very great friends with Christie which he publicly acknowledged and Christie wants Kasich to win by as large of a margin as possible; aware that he'll win re-election for sure.

A better margin of victory for Kasich in a politically divided state like Ohio could set Kasich up to be a strong pick for VP (and let's face it, both of them are interested in the Presidency/Vice Presidency). Then there's also the fact that Christie helping out popular Governors like Walker and Kasich satisfies national, wealthy donors like Sheldon Adelson who Christie (or Kasich or Walker) would need if they run for President.

Though it is worth mentioning, although Christie did help campaign for Kasich, the RGA hasn't aired any ads in Ohio since very shortly after FitzGerald's campaign implosion in early August. They realize Kasich's safe and are focusing on saving the likes of Brownback and LePage for the most part.

Strange that Christie would want his potential rival to win by as big of a margin as possible, since that makes Christie's re-election win much less impressive.

[IceSpear]

Adam, do you think FitzGerald will end his political career after this election, or will he try to run for something else in the future?

[IceSpear]

Adam, do you think FitzGerald will end his political career after this election, or will he try to run for something else in the future?

It doesn't matter if he runs for anything, he has less chance of winning another primary than Alan Keyes has of becoming President.

Haha, of course he'd never actually win the nomination (much less the general). My question was if he might be delusional enough to try.

[IceSpear]

You folks think Democrats still have a chance of knocking off that pimply faced nerd Josh Mandel?

Thankfully Mandel will almost certainly still be around for another four years. I'm hopeful looking forward to a more successful Senate campaign in 2018.

I'm hopeful he runs again too, considering he's currently underperforming Kasich by at least 22 points.

[IceSpear]

Ugh, even that turd Mandel won by double digits. Thanks for dragging everyone down, FitzGerald. He lost Cuyahoga County!