Let’s say you’re one of those Ohio House Democrats who voted for the health-care bill and are taking some heat for it, like John Boccieri or Steve Driehaus or Charlie Wilson or Mary Jo Kilroy. Or, let’s say you’re an Ohio House Democrat who couldn’t vote for it because you’ve already made one supremely unpopular vote for cap-and-trade, like Zach Space.

But you’re not at the top of the ticket this fall. You’ve got Gov. Ted Strickland to carry the Democratic party banner in November, and maybe his campaign effort can help drive turnout in your neck of the woods.

Nah, just kidding. You’re toast.

Despite continuing to be relatively unknown, John Kasich leads Ted Strickland 42-37 in his bid to be the next Governor of Ohio.
50% of voters have no opinion about Kasich and among those who do feelings about him are pretty evenly divided with 25% viewing him favorably and 24% unfavorably. Kasich’s advantage likely has a lot more to do with Strickland than it does with himself. The Governor’s popularity continues to decline with only 33% of voters approving of him to 47% who disapprove.
Strickland’s base is not all that enthused about him with just 53% of Democrats expressing approval of him to 23% who disapprove and 23% with no opinion. Majorities of independents and Republicans disapprove of him by margins of 54/28 and 69/14 respectively . . . Kasich’s lead is due to an overwhelming 47-24 lead with independents. Independents are leaning toward the GOP everywhere this year, but the margin in Ohio is particularly wide.

As the vice president would say, “This is a big f . . .”