Survey: Voters not so keen on Kasich

May 10, 2012 at 12:07a.m.

COLUMBUS

Voters like Gov. John Kasich’s tax hike on fracking and corresponding income-tax cut, but they’re not as keen on the man himself.

That’s according to the latest survey by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, the Connecticut-based pollsters who regularly gauge Ohioan’s views on candidates, officeholders and issues.

A total of 60 percent of the 1,069 registered Ohio voters questioned over the past week said they support Kasich’s plan to increase taxes on oil and gas produced using horizontal hydraulic fracturing, with the resulting proceeds used to cut income-tax rates in the state.

Sixty-four percent said the economic benefits of oil-and gas-drilling outweigh any environmental concerns.

But 44 percent of voters gave Kasich low marks on his performance in office, versus 41 percent who said the opposite, statistically unchanged from March polling.

The results have a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

“Gov. Kasich’s numbers have come up somewhat along with the optimism, but he still has a ways to go,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the polling institute, said in a released statement. “Voters say 49-40 percent that he is unfair in the way he handles the budget, but they do see him as a strong leader, 54-36 percent, which is a characteristic voters seek in their executives.”

Among other results from the poll, a total of 51 percent of voters said they were satisfied with the direction the state is taking, up from 29 percent when Quinnipiac asked the question in October, with the latest results back at the midpoint for the first time in five years.

And 62 percent of respondents believe Ohio’s new casinos will be good for the state economy, though that same percentage said they don’t plan on visiting them.

“Ohioans are more optimistic about how things are going than they have been for five years,” Brown said. “That may be because the state’s economy has improved, so much so that the Buckeye unemployment rate is below the national average and lower than many of the Sun Belt states where Ohioans have been fleeing for decades for better economic opportunities.”