Poll: Kasich leading but FitzGerald gaining ground

November 27, 2013 at 12:00a.m.

COLUMBUS

Democrat Ed FitzGerald is gaining ground on Republican Gov. John Kasich among voters questioned recently by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Kasich is still ahead, with 44 percent of 1,361respondents supporting his re-election, versus 37 percent who sided with the Cuyahoga County executive.

That compares with a 47 percent-33 percent Kasich lead in Quinnipiac’s June poll.

And 71 percent of voters said they don’t know enough about FitzGerald to form an opinion.

“Ohio Gov. John Kasich enters his reelection year with only a 7-point lead over a largely unknown challenger,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the polling institute, said in a released statement. “On the plus side, his approval ratings mark a huge turnaround from his first two years, when his job approval was in the 30s and Democrats were licking their chops at the prospect of making him a one-termer. But he’s below the 50 percent mark in the matchup and on whether he deserves reelection.”

The Connecticut-based group regularly gauges Ohioans’ views on candidates and issues. Its latest poll has a margin of error of about 3 percentage points.

More than half of those questioned for the latest survey (52 percent) said they approved of Kasich’s work in office, versus 33 percent who said the opposite. That’s down slightly from a 54 percent approval rating in June.

But 48 percent said Kasich deserves a second term, versus 39 percent who said he didn’t.

Voters were split on expanding Medicaid coverage for needy Ohioans, an issue pursued and implemented by the governor without the full support of the GOP-controlled legislature.

Fifty-one percent of Ohio voters said Medicaid expansion is a good idea, while 40 percent said it was not.

“Because of Kasich’s Medicaid expansion, 24 percent of Republicans say they are less likely to vote for him,” Brown said. “History tells us, however, that many of those alienated party members come home on Election Day because they find the other candidates less palatable.”