Strickland well ahead in recent poll

In his re-election bid, Mike DeWine is trailing Sherrod Brown.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Democrat Ted Strickland leads Republican Ken Blackwell by 20 percentage points in the race to be Ohio's next governor, a newspaper poll published Sunday shows.
Strickland, a congressman from Lisbon in eastern Ohio, received 47 percent of support, compared to Blackwell's 27 percent, in a mail poll of 1,654 registered voters conducted by The Columbus Dispatch from July 11 through Thursday. About one in four participants said they were undecided about who they will vote for Nov. 7.
The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points.
Strickland had a 3-to-1 advantage among independent voters and more support from his own party than Blackwell, Ohio's secretary of state. Strickland had the backing of 81 percent of Democrats, while Blackwell was supported by 61 percent of the Republicans polled.
In addition, 18 percent of those polled who voted for President Bush in 2004 said they will vote for Strickland, while 53 percent will support Blackwell.
"I kind of feel like the Republican Party has run the state government like an old boys club for a long time," said Stuart Hinnefeld, a 53-year-old federal worker from the Cincinnati area. Hinnefeld supports Republican U.S. Sen. Mike DeWine in his re-election bid but doesn't back Blackwell.
DeWine's opponent, Sherrod Brown, a congressman from Avon, had a lead of 8 percentage points -- 45 percent to 37 percent -- in the Dispatch poll, with 18 percent undecided.
Reasoning
Some poll participants referenced an investment scandal among Ohio's Republican-dominated government, which led to a no contest plea from Gov. Bob Taft for failing to report gifts and forced an overhaul of the investment operations of the state's fund for injured workers.
Two brokers accused of bribing a former workers' compensation official are scheduled for trial in September, while prominent GOP donor and coin dealer Tom Noe, charged in an ill-fated $50 million coin investment he managed for the fund, is set for trial in October.
"Taft and his Republican Party have pretty much ruined the state of Ohio, and it's time for a Democrat to see if they can fix what has been done," said Jenna Justen-Green of Brunswick, a 32-year-old independent who served in Iraq with the Army National Guard in 2003 and 2004.
But Republican Heidi Baxter Cortes, 25, a middle school teacher from Columbus who plans to support Blackwell, said she doesn't hold all Republicans responsible for the scandals.
"I think it depends on the individual," she said. "There are good Republicans and bad Democrats as well."