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Governor’s race: Kasich leads Strickland in new poll

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By William Hershey, Columbus Bureau 11:14 PM Tuesday, March 23, 2010

COLUMBUS — In a new poll for Ohio’s governor’s race, 50 percent of the participants didn’t know enough about Republican challenger John Kasich to have an opinion.

Still, the former Columbus-area U.S. House member and ex-Lehman Brothers investment banker led Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, 42 percent to 37 percent, in the poll from Public Policy Polling of Raleigh, N.C., released Tuesday, March 23. Twenty-one percent were undecided.

“One of the reasons Kasich is this far ahead is (that) he’s not Strickland,” said Dean Debnam, Public Policy Polling president. Strickland, like most incumbent governors and incumbents in general, is not popular these days, said Debnam.

“That’s pretty much universal,” Debnam said.

In the poll, 33 percent approved of the job Strickland’s doing, while 47 percent disapproved. Even among Democrats, just 53 percent approved of Strickland’s performance, while 23 percent disapproved. Among independents, 28 percent approved and 54 percent disapproved. Just 14 percent of Republicans approved Strickland’s performance, while 69 percent disapproved.

Of those who had an opinion on Kasich, 25 percent had a favorable one and 24 percent had an unfavorable one. Usually, that’s not good enough to be leading an incumbent, but Strickland is “an unusually unpopular incumbent,” the analysis said.

Kasich’s edge over Strickland comes from better support among independents, who gave him a 47-24 advantage. Strickland led among Democrats, 70- percent to 10 percent while Republicans preferred Kasich, 73- percent to 10 percent.The poll of 630 Ohio voters taken Saturday and Sunday, March 20-21, had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.9 percent.

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