OH-Gov: Strickland in Commanding Position

by: Crisitunity

Thu Feb 05, 2009 at 5:14 PM EST

Ted Strickland (D-inc): 56
John Kasich (R): 26

Ted Strickland (D-inc): 54
Mike DeWine (R): 32
(MoE: ±2.9%)

Mike DeWine (R): 37
John Kasich (R): 22
Kevin Coughlin (R): 3
(MoE: ±5.1%)

Ted Strickland is starting to look fairly secure in his 2010 bid for re-election as Ohio governor, posting double-digit margins against two top-tier challengers. Strickland is well-liked (60 favorable/19 unfavorable), while ex-Sen. Mike DeWine inspires a whole lot of "meh" and people seem to simply not remember anything about ex-Rep. John Kasich (21 favorable/6 unfavorable, with 71% don't know). Although Kasich has been the name most closely linked to this race, he loses the primary to DeWine, probably on the strength of the two-term senator's statewide name recognition, although he still fares better than State Sen. Kevin Coughlin, the only declared candidate at this time.

You may remember that a few weeks ago, a PPP poll gave Strickland only a 6-point margin over Kasich for 2010. One of these polls must be way off. (Considering that the PPP poll found only 52% African-American support for Strickland, my money is on PPP being more of an outlier.)