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Race for governor tightens
On the side
Senatorial debate:: I will be on the panel asking questions to the two major-party candidates for U.S. Senate at the Oct. 12 Ohio News Organization debate in Columbus.
If you have suggestions for questions for Democrat Lee Fisher and/or Republican Rob Portman, feel free to e-mail them to me at skolnick@vindy.com.
In an initial discussion about the debate with the event’s organizers the topic of make-up was discussed. I laughed it off, but I was assured it would only be a little powder on my face to take off the shine. “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”
In polls for the Senate race, Portman continues to hold a comfortable lead over Fisher.
Portman began airing his second critical television commercial about Fisher this week.
Fisher, whose campaign can’t compete financially with Portman, has aired only one TV commercial since the Democratic primary in May. That commercial criticized Portman for trade policies, specifically with China.
Portman has aired twice as many Fisher commercials as Fisher in the general election.
Even though some polls about a month ago had Republican John Kasich ahead of Gov. Ted Strickland by double-digits, the latter said he never panicked.
Strickland, a Democrat, said he didn’t believe those results even though this year looks to be a huge one for Republicans.
Strickland acknowledged he was trailing Kasich saying one reason was his challenger began airing television commercials in early August and hasn’t stopped.
“TV is pretty powerful; we expected to take the hit,” Strickland said. “We had resources we could have used.”
But Strickland said his campaign decided it would be smarter to use the money for commercials closer to the election.
After not airing many television commercials, including none on Youngstown network affiliates, Strickland made major buys starting Sept. 4 and running till Nov. 2, Election Day.
So what’s happened?
A Sunday poll by the Ohio News Organization, a consortium of the state’s eight largest daily newspapers, including The Vindicator, had Kasich ahead of Strickland 49 percent to 45 percent with a 3.4 percent margin of error.
Closing the gap
Other polls released later in the week had Kasich up by 2 percentage points and one poll has Strickland winning by 1 percentage point.
Strickland is certainly not out of the woods; far from it.
This is still going to be a very close race.
Kasich’s message resonates with voters. That message is:
The state lost about 400,000 jobs under Strickland.
If elected, Kasich would eventually eliminate the state’s income tax.
If elected, Kasich would cut government spending and employees.
Can he do it?
That’s hard to say.
But to voters who feel they are paying too much in taxes, and are worried about their jobs or have lost their jobs, many of them are nodding their heads in agreement with Kasich.
Strickland criticizes Kasich calling him “reckless,” talking “about things he knows nothing about,” and having “no major ideas that I’m aware of that will move Ohio forward.”
Strickland and Kasich have spent a lot of time since Labor Day weekend campaigning around the state. That won’t stop till the election is over.
Strickland is returning to the Mahoning Valley on Monday to campaign with Vice President Joe Biden.
The gubernatorial election results will help decide a number of the down-ticket races and could be a major factor in deciding who will be president in 2012.
The stakes are that high.