Ohio Megathread

[Hifly]

The last thing we want is to prove that Fitzgerald is really horny. We don't want to excite Adam even more.

[LeBron]

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.

FitzGerald and the Irish delegate were minding their own business, and had good reason to stop to help relocate their location to the delegate hotel via GPS and help find their friends in the other car. All while an electrician who was working at this time and decided to call 911, looking at FitzGerald and the delegate for the next 1/2 hour because something seemed "a little fishy" when realistically, police records show nothing happened.

The delegates and FitzGerald had a late night. They were at a bar where FitzGerald was one of the designated, sober drivers of the evening and one of the only two there who knew the area and who volunteered to drive. It isn't illegal to be driving at 4:30 in the morning, and the only reason they stopped in the vacant parking lot was because it was the closest place at the time of when the needed to stop - plus, what other parking place are you going to find having cars at 4:30 in the morning? Any place would have looked "suspicious" according to the eye witness. Even FitzGerald's wife, Shannon, knew where FitzGerald was at. Ed would not cheat on her - she's a great woman with a great family who works two jobs herself to help provide the money necessary to send all their kids to college. They all go to our church regularly, to and Ed isn't the kind of guy who would do something heinous like this that Republicans are insinuating.

The chances of Kasich winning hasn't gone up because of this. If anything, with the lack of evidence here against FitzGerald and the amount of evidence here for FitzGerald, it's looking now more like a political, personal attack by Republicans than anything else plus FitzGerald's name ID will increase from this attack, to. There is proof that the Ohio and RGA Republicans were involved in this and I'll get to that in a minute.

[free my dawg]

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?

Can confirm, Fitzy got with a MILF.

[Hifly]

Does Fitzgerald wear this to church?

[LeBron]

Ed FitzGerald spoke at a press conference today at the F.O.P. headquarters in Columbus, Ohio, canceling his original campaign visit in Dayton to discuss this defamatory attack which he's aware Kasich knew about. Obviously, as is typical Kasich fashion, he didn't comment on FitzGerald's comments and is going to let his GOP henchmen in the state party (specifically, ORP Chairman Matt Borges) do his bidding for him in this war orchestrated on behalf of Governor Kasich. It's amazing how Kasich could even tolerate this when he himself has a family including two young daughters. He's not setting an example for them or Ohio.

Here's another video from that same press conference where FitzGerald outlines everything that happened on October 13th, 2012. He was not cheating on his wife. He's getting criticized for taking the responsibility of being the designated, sober driver of the evening in an area the delegates weren't familiar with. When they did stop, it was for getting their coordinates back on track and to wait for the other car to catch up to them. The Irish delegate who was in the passenger seat and the cop who came to the parking lot scene can confirm some, if not all of this. The eye witness and the 1 girl, 1 man, 1 car, + night does not mean FitzGerald was cheating. In fact, the eye witness was using a horrible play on words and didn't even have a good vantage point from what he was describing. When police did arrive, they found nothing unusual going on, and there wasn't.

What I can tell you though is that this fake, underhanded leak was because a series of emails have been leaked by Team FitzGerald indicating that the Westlake Mayor, the RGA and the ORP were all working together and used public resources to find damaging dirt on FitzGerald. Mayor Dennis Clough (R) of Westlake is denying involvement with the public records, even though there's evidence that would show otherwise and Kasich is refusing to denounce this personal attack on Ed and his family. Is it no wonder either that they're leaking this right after the ORP and RGA feel that Kasich is politically in trouble for re-election with both campaigns underway and a FitzGerald ad already airing in the process with polls indicating a close race? They're trying to win this race the same way that Thad Cochran did in the early stage of MS-Sen - through campaign workers for Kasich/Cochran throwing malicious verbal assaults and personal attacks over "scandals" and non-issues.

Here's another few tidbits from FitzGerald's press conference that further backs up FitzGerald's explanations and some heavy criticism to the Republicans:

- Found that the Ohio Republican Party filed record requests looking for dirt and used Ed's son's traffic ticket as a potential political attack as one of many examples. His wife Sharron was very upset when he heard the ORP had done this, and I don't blame her.

And on the actual night itself:

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I hope Republicans realize that neither side is winning. Ed and his family are getting bashed for an alleged affair and are trying to deliberately ruin the relationship of Ed and Shannon. It's awful, and when you know that Ed and Shannon are like any other middle-class family who regularly go to church, go to the state fair and partake in other fun things while still managing to work day in day out and be great parents, you know that they know Ohio better than Kasich ever would. From a political perspective, Republicans are about to go off the deep-end, to, and because Kasich has chosen to make this personal, he better get ready for the 3 worst months of his life.

FitzGerald understandably wants to move on from this fake rumor and is stating he's committed to his wife and that Republicans need to stop with these attacks and get to the real issues. Unfortunately, this isn't going to be an issue-driven campaign anymore with focus on tax rates on the wealthy and poor or job creation, but rather just total media attention over this one thing that shouldn't even be in the news. Here's one final article which basically outlines everything that's happened so far.

[Oakvale]

"Oh Ed, that was mind-blowing," Joanne said, rehooking her bra. Her Irish lilt served only to make FitzGerald more aroused. He held up a small plastic bag, a glint in his eye. "I've got to get back home soon, my wife's going to be wondering where I am. But first, wanna smoke up?" he said, grinning. Afterward, when Joanne had vomited and driven off in his car, FitzGerald sat in the rain, struggling to get the stench of the drug off his jacket. Eventually, FitzGerald stood, looked into the dark, and began to laugh. He stayed like that for some time.

[Lief 🗽]

God I hope Adam's getting paid for writing out and posting all this nonsense.

[TJ in Oregon]

As for why Kasich didn't comment, he'd need his head examined if he did. I highly doubt Kasich was in that parking lot with them at 4:30am. He has no idea what happened and whatever he could possibly say could only come back and bite him.

As for whether or not I think Fitz had an affair, I have absolutely no idea. I wouldn't have really expected that of him before this and think it's entirely reasonable for him to have been in a car with a woman without having sex with her. When it comes to making assumptions, let's not get too hasty.

I don't really care much anyway since there was absolutely no way was going to vote for Fitz even if Kasich was the one found in a car with a woman who isn't his wife at 4:30 in the morning.

[Keystone Phil]

I think the real scandal here is that the guy randomly capitalizes the "G" in the middle of his name.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

What's worse than people automatically assuming they had sex is Adam automatically assuming FitzGerald's word.

[Maxwell]

Changing the title of the thread to reflect new realities

[LeBron]

As for why Kasich didn't comment, he'd need his head examined if he did. I highly doubt Kasich was in that parking lot with them at 4:30am. He has no idea what happened and whatever he could possibly say could only come back and bite him.

As for whether or not I think Fitz had an affair, I have absolutely no idea. I wouldn't have really expected that of him before this and think it's entirely reasonable for him to have been in a car with a woman without having sex with her. When it comes to making assumptions, let's not get too hasty.

I don't really care much anyway since there was absolutely no way was going to vote for Fitz even if Kasich was the one found in a car with a woman who isn't his wife at 4:30 in the morning.

Oh, he knew about it. Those series of emails I linked to above involved participation in this leakage by the ORP who, along with Kasich, are like brothers. It's chairman was even appointed by Kasich, himself. Kasich isn't exactly the best man when it comes to telling the truth, either. He once lied about working before for the Lehman Brothers even though he was an executive there, he lied about public employees in the state receiving free healthcare, he lied about not raising taxes, he's lied about his own birthplace and there's plenty of other lies out there in the shadows. And now, Kasich's conscience is telling him to not tell the truth about his ordering of the leak.

The only thing scandalous in this whole campaign has been Kasich making back-handed deals with taxpayer money to fund failing charter schools and non-existent jobs under JobsOhio (and has refused to allow an audit on it + exempt it from all Ohio's open govt and ethics laws). He's a very corrupt guy seeing as how Kasich earlier this year helped pass modern-day Jim Crow laws and purposely made it nearly impossible for the Libertarians to make the ballot this year so he can get re-elected. Or how about when the Ohio Department of Natural Resources established a hit list of any major opponents of Ohio's state park fracking plan including the Sierra Club which Kasich's office claimed they knew nothing about (later proven false). Or, my favorite one, Kasich using taxpayer dollars to pay for security improvements at his house in Westerville because he didn't want the Governor's Mansion. This is Kasich trying to make voters forget some of his most heinous acts as Governor including Senate Bill 5 or his utter lack of transparency, but it's already backfiring.

[LeBron]

Since some of you other guys are unbelievably defending Kasich's personal attack on Ed's family, I urge the rest of you who sincerely support Ed on here to sign Ed's petition to tell Governor Kasich that dirty politics and his corrupt administration don't belong in Ohio.

http://www.edfitzgeraldforohio.com/landing/gutter-politics/

FTR, I might seem like a "FitzGerald hack", but this is my first real and more local campaign I'm in and not only do I want to see us win back the Governor's Mansion as a party, but he lives right here in Lakewood with us. He's gotten to know and have great friendships with a lot of the families in and around the city, they go to our same parish (my parents just saw Shannon and her 16 year old daughter at church on Saturday), and I've interned for and met Ed before and he's a great, down-to-Earth guy who is very disciplined. I'll defend him to the Earth and back if I have to.

As IceSpear said, he's never been drunk and never smoked pot, and he's not a sleazy, average American who would cheat on his wife - he just wouldn't do that and I personally believe that. I don't know him intimately by any means, but I know him better than those of you making assumptions of him cheating based solely on the timing of the drive back to the hotel.

[TJ in Oregon]

As for why Kasich didn't comment, he'd need his head examined if he did. I highly doubt Kasich was in that parking lot with them at 4:30am. He has no idea what happened and whatever he could possibly say could only come back and bite him.

As for whether or not I think Fitz had an affair, I have absolutely no idea. I wouldn't have really expected that of him before this and think it's entirely reasonable for him to have been in a car with a woman without having sex with her. When it comes to making assumptions, let's not get too hasty.

I don't really care much anyway since there was absolutely no way was going to vote for Fitz even if Kasich was the one found in a car with a woman who isn't his wife at 4:30 in the morning.

Oh, he knew about it. Those series of emails I linked to above involved participation in this leakage by the ORP who, along with Kasich, are like brothers. It's chairman was even appointed by Kasich, himself. [unrelated rambling]

I think you misunderstand what I meant there. Certainly Kasich knew his campaign was looking for dirt on Fitz and probably knew this was coming out before it did. That's not what I meant. I meant Kasich has no idea what actually happened in that car at 4:30 in the morning in 2012.

[Pandaguineapig]

Fitzgerald is one of the few politicians I would be more likely to vote for if he was having an affair, he's among Santorum and Biden in that category

[TJ in Oregon]

Fitzgerald is one of the few politicians I would be more likely to vote for if he was having an affair, he's among Santorum and Biden in that category

Why is that?

[Pandaguineapig]

Fitzgerald is one of the few politicians I would be more likely to vote for if he was having an affair, he's among Santorum and Biden in that category

Why is that?

It humanizes them, makes them seem less like robots who are so uncontroversial to the point where it's almost unnatural

[NHLiberal]

Fitzgerald is one of the few politicians I would be more likely to vote for if he was having an affair, he's among Santorum and Biden in that category

Why is that?

It humanizes them, makes them seem less like robots who are so uncontroversial to the point where it's almost unnatural

Santorum and Biden don't really sound like that to me

[Pandaguineapig]

Fitzgerald is one of the few politicians I would be more likely to vote for if he was having an affair, he's among Santorum and Biden in that category

Why is that?

It humanizes them, makes them seem less like robots who are so uncontroversial to the point where it's almost unnatural

Santorum and Biden don't really sound like that to me

I guess you're right with Biden, but are you honestly saying that it would not entirely change your perspective on Santorum if he went hiking the Appalachian trail ala Mark Sanford?

[NHLiberal]

Fitzgerald is one of the few politicians I would be more likely to vote for if he was having an affair, he's among Santorum and Biden in that category

Why is that?

It humanizes them, makes them seem less like robots who are so uncontroversial to the point where it's almost unnatural

Santorum and Biden don't really sound like that to me

I guess you're right with Biden, but are you honestly saying that it would not entirely change your perspective on Santorum if he went hiking the Appalachian trail ala Mark Sanford?

Oh of course it would and I agree that I'd prefer him. I just don't think robotic and uncontroversial describes Biden or Santorum

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Is Adam aware that online petitions are just email address collectors that are a form of dirty politics in and of themselves.

Lets be honest here: Ed FitzGerald is a manwhore.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Since some of you other guys are unbelievably defending Kasich's personal attack on Ed's family, I urge the rest of you who sincerely support Ed on here to sign Ed's petition to tell Governor Kasich that dirty politics and his corrupt administration don't belong in Ohio.

http://www.edfitzgeraldforohio.com/landing/gutter-politics/

FTR, I might seem like a "FitzGerald hack", but this is my first real and more local campaign I'm in and not only do I want to see us win back the Governor's Mansion as a party, but he lives right here in Lakewood with us. He's gotten to know and have great friendships with a lot of the families in and around the city, they go to our same parish (my parents just saw Shannon and her 16 year old daughter at church on Saturday), and I've interned for and met Ed before and he's a great, down-to-Earth guy who is very disciplined. I'll defend him to the Earth and back if I have to.

As IceSpear said, he's never been drunk and never smoked pot, and he's not a sleazy, average American who would cheat on his wife - he just wouldn't do that and I personally believe that. I don't know him intimately by any means, but I know him better than those of you making assumptions of him cheating based solely on the timing of the drive back to the hotel.

"...and he's not a sleazy average American who would cheat on his wife..." - Adam

What the hell?

[Lief 🗽]

"...and he's not a sleazy average American who would cheat on his wife..." - Adam

What a terrific campaign slogan for Team FitzGeRald!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Let us hope that when County Commissar Ed FitzGerald was 'punching in coordinates' he used protection.

[Maxwell]

I think Adam actually is Ed Fitzgerald.