OH-PPP: Gov. Kasich (R) only tied with Fitzgerald (D)

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41% Kasich (R)
41% Fitzgerald (D)
  6% Earl (L)

https://twitter.com/ppppolls/status/398630049475096577

This is actually an improvement for Kasich since the last PPP poll, when Fitzgerald was up by 3.

This is still awful for Kasich. Considering that the floor for Democrats in Ohio is around 47%, a libertarian who wins 6% of the vote share is going to hurt the Republican. This is not Virginia early this month because the Republican is the incumbent.

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This could be trouble (Daily Kos):

 OH-Gov: It looks like the tentacles of the Suarez Corporation scandal wound up reaching higher than previously thought. On Wednesday, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that GOP Rep. Jim Renacci wrote a letter to fellow Republican Gov. John Kasich in an attempt to get him to intervene on behalf of Benjamin Suarez, whose direct marketing firm was being targeted by local prosecutors in California. Suarez also reached out to Kasich directly, and his office claimed that the requests died there, with Suarez being told "we can't help you."

Well, someone on John Kasich's staff should have done a little more research before issuing that blanket denial, because a follow-up report on Thursday busted that claim completely. It turns out that Kasich's chief counsel sent a letter to California Attorney General Kamala Harris, asking her to "determine whether anything improper has occurred" in the Napa County DA's investigation of Suarez Corp. (Harris's response was a polite version of GTFO.)

Suarez, of course, had donated to Kasich's campaign (over $22,000), in addition to the donations he illegally smurfed through his company's employees to Renacci and state Treasurer Josh Mandel. (Mandel also wrote letters on Suarez's behalf.) All three have since either returned the contributions or donated them to charity, and none of these officials are directly implicated in the structuring scheme for which Benjamin Suarez and his company are currently being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's office.

But their willingness to help a shady character with such a shady undertaking—even a Kasich spokesman admitted that Suarez's requests were "inappropriate, and frankly, a little weird"—don't make them look especially good. And Kasich's denial that he'd ever helped Suarez was just boneheadedly stupid.

P.S. On Thursday night, PPP teased a new poll it had conducted for the Ohio Democratic Party, saying that Kasich and Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald are tied at 41 apiece (with 6 percent for Libertarian Charlie Earl), while Democratic state Rep. Connie Pillich leads Mandel 47-43 in the treasurer's race. Tom Jensen tweeted that the OH Dems would release full results on Friday, but it looks like those plans have been delayed.

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An incumbent Governor should normally have a clear advantage in early polling over a local politician not well known outside his area. Kasich does not. He's probably going down to defeat.