OH-PPP - Kasich is tied with FitzGerald

[LeBron]

I'm HIGHLY sceptical about this poll.

It's an interesting poll. I would like to see more info when it comes out, like his approvals, because PPP has seen Kasich with high approvals but still a competitive race, and whether that changes.

That was actually Quinnipiac who had Kasich's approvals around 51-54, but his favorable's in the low 40s. The last PPP poll that did approval ratings gave Kasich only a 42% approval I think?

On the results so far, unfortunately, Husted never released the voter registration numbers after 2012 so I'm not exactly sure if the 39-37 edge to Dems is true or not, but voter ID was high among Dems in OH after 2008. I find it hard to believe that Kasich would win over more Dem voters than FitzGerald Republicans and judging from that poll if most of the Kasich Dems end up going for Fitz and FitzGerald Pubs end up going for Kasich, then Fitz still has the edge there.

It's obvious to that those polar, racist voting laws he signed and the bad publicity him, Husted, Yost and legislature have gotten from their threats to our local funds and FitzGerald's powerful activism to send the absentee ballots anyways while contacting Eric Holder about it boosted his name recognition and approvals (especially thanks to MSNBC). He managed a complete 360 on who independent voters would go to (Kasich was winning them before), is solidly winning African Americans, and made this race an absolute tossup!

Anyone whose doubted FitzGerald up until now should stop listening to Larry Sabato and realize all this effort and energy he's put into the people's grassroots campaign for the past year has paid off in a state that's to the right of WI and MI where Walker and Snyder currently lead and a Governor who's trying to convince much harder than Walker or Snyder have that he [Kasich] has changed and cares about and is a passionate worker for Ohioans. Well, my quote in my sig would say otherwise and the Ohio Democrats are pulling out all stops in this campaign. It will be nothing like Tim Hagan's in 2002.

[LeBron]

Oh, and I forgot to mention, recent events in Ohio hurt Husted just as much as Kasich because Democratic State Senator Nina Turner (who I have the privilege of knowing) leads Husted 45-44 with 12% undecided. She leads among women, independents, Dems, those 18 to 29 and those 30 to 45, and leads massively among blacks (obviously). She also ties Husted among men and only trails Husted by 12 among white voters, so she isn't as racially "profiling" as some think.

[LeBron]

Yeah, we should've run a serious candidate here...

For the last time, Todd Portune was never a serious candidate. He lacked support from the state party and Chris Redfern rightfully wanted nothing to do with him, lacked name ID and cash, is to the right of FitzGerald, had serious back problems and would have never managed to do the strong grassroots campaigning that FitzGerald has done, blatantly attacked the state party and FitzGerald on a number of occasions and was too ignorant to admit that FitzGerald already had the African American base locked, couldn't even find a running mate until the final week before signatures were needed, used other potential running mates for him from Cuyahoga County as "fear mongering" against FitzGerald, and struggled to get anybody behind him (IIRC, 7 people showed up to an event during the Portune Palooza in January). If Portune was the nominee, the ODP may as well just should have endorsed Anita Rios because Portune would just govern the same way as Kasich has on tax policy favoring the rich and taxing the middle class and seniors with aggression or, at best, neutrality on issues pertaining to gays, women, African Americans etc. Portune during his whole charade cared more about making the Ohio Democratic Party dysfunctional, unorganized and set his sights on having no clear frontrunner for the nomination and really could have cared less about attacking Kasich's policies which is the main, effective strategy needed to win this race.

If you ask me, FitzGerald is a huge upgrade from Strickland and heck, Strickland himself agrees with that statement. He stated he realizes the need for newer, more progressive candidates that can appeal to younger voters and get the high turnout from our county that Strickland could never get. He won't be able to match Strickland's 2010 numbers in SE Ohio (FitzGerald may have already hurt his chances by coming out in favor of comprehensive gun control), but he can make those votes up in Cuyahoga and Montgomery Counties, will obviously do well elsewhere up North, and Hamilton County will be in play.