Poll: Kasich tops GOP candidates in Ohio

COLUMBUS

More Ohio voters picked Gov. John Kasich among other GOP presidential hopefuls in a new poll released Wednesday.

But Kasich isn’t having much sway in other swing states, according to the survey by the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

A total of 14 percent of registered Ohio Republicans picked the governor over about a dozen other potential primary candidates. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was second with 11 percent, followed by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, with 10 percent each.

No other GOP candidate managed double-digit support, and 20 percent of Ohio Republicans said they didn’t yet have a choice.

The results shift if former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was a factor, with 15 percent of those polled in Ohio saying they’d back the former presidential contender. Kasich was second in that case, with 11 percent.

“The big question in Ohio is whether Gov. John Kasich runs,” Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the poll, said in a released statement. “If so, the data indicates that he would be a formidable competitor in his home state. This Swing State Poll, however, indicates that he has a long, long way to go in Florida and Pennsylvania.”

Connecticut-based Quinnipiac regularly gauges voters’ opinions on candidates and issues in Ohio and other swing states. Its recent party-specific polling has a margin of error of about 5 percentage points.

Among GOP voters in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, Bush fared the best, leading with 32 percent in his home state and 12 percent in Pennsylvania.

Among Democratic voters, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the candidate of choice of more than half of those polled in the three states.

“Taken as a whole, there is no clear leader for the Republican presidential nomination in these three critical swing states,” Brown said. “Former Gov. Jeb Bush is way ahead in Florida with almost a third of the vote, but no candidate is in comparable situation in Ohio or Pennsylvania... Bush is the only one in double digits in all three states, but barely so.”

He added, “The Democratic race is the exact opposite. Hillary Clinton has an overwhelming lead and currently no serious challengers. Should she decide not to run, the field could grow like a weed.”