Posted on 08/11/2010 11:24:04 AM PDT by zebrahead
Ohio Republican Rob Portman holds a narrow lead over Democrat Lee Fisher in a Senate race marked by voter worries about a stumbling economy and high unemployment, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.
Portman, director of the Office of Budget and Management and the U.S. Trade Representative under former President George W. Bush, leads Fisher 43 percent to 36 percent among likely voters less than three months before the November 2 election for the open Senate seat.
In the race for governor, Republican challenger John Kasich leads incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland by 48 percent to 39 percent among likely voters in Ohio, a critical battleground state that often reflects national voting trends.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Wow. This is the first time I’ve seen Kasich lead in a poll. Something has really turned the race around here. I’m guessing it’s an economy thing (if it isn’t, it should be). Maybe the Michelle Antoinette trip rubbed people the wrong way as well, but Midwesterners tend to be a little more pragmatic. We really have to give Strickland the boot. He’s been a totally ineffective Governor and nothing but an Obombah cheerleader.
Rob Portman is indeed a fundraising machine and he’s been running statewide ads (along with the Chamber of Commerce) since late June/early July. With nearly $9 million already at his disposal, he’ll be able to swamp Fisher with ads between now and November. His biggest problem isn’t his ties to Bush, but rather the fact that he is relatively unknown outside his base in Cincinnati/Southwest Ohio. That’s where millions of dollars in TV ads can make a difference in defining himself in places where he isn’t well known.
If Fisher had a 43-36 lead the headline would be “Democrat holds commanding lead in bid to take Ohio Senate seat from GOP”
Well, yes and no. The cities in the northeast, Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, and Toledo are pretty much 'rat hellholes. They've been solid 'rat for years and years, are all going down the toilet, yet will vote for even more of the 'rats who have F*ed them over the last forty years. Go figure. The rest of the state is fairly solid republican.
What’s your sense of Columbus? Just about everyone at Ohio State University is either hard-left (faculty) or enamored with Obama (students), but since I spend my time on campus I don’t really have a feel for the rest of the area.
These are SOLID leads. And given the enthusiasm gap, if GOP holds up we will get GOP wins there.
“Just about everyone at Ohio State University is either hard-left (faculty) or enamored with Obama (students), but since I spend my time on campus” ...
True of any University these days ... Obama gave a speech to UT. Pathetic, but our president has outworn his welcome with working Americans who have had some real-world experience, so he has to speak to college kids to get an audience naive enough to believe him still.
It may be a huge lead even to the Dimmocrats on election day. I smell blowout. Obama and the Dims poll numbers go down by the day.
when is 43% to 36% “narrow”?...oh, when its the rat losing ....
I’m a Buckeye, and yes, most Ohioans are conservative, with the exception of the larger counties, such as Franklin, Hamilton and Cuyahoga. These are the counties which gave the zero the state’s electoral vote. There were a few others, but, McCain actually won 67 of our 88 counties.
Also, don’t forget that the director of Job & Family Services, a huge DEM, was fired for the hack job she did on Joe the Plumber. Let’s not even go there with Jennifer Brunner - Ohioans hate her guts for the things she pulled during the 2008 election. (she is secretary of state, and an ACORN plant)
So, yeah, I expect Ohio Kasich and Portman to win in November.
She's the reason I took notice. I thought she was a shoo-in for the US Senate nomination, with the whole Obama machine behind her. They couldn't deliver the vote; it wasn't even close. Her opponent for the primary had TV ads about the need for jobs in OH.
I also don't see the dems in OH all that together at this point. You've got corruption, you've got Kucinich type dems going their own way, you've got the Obama crowd not really bringing in the union-type dems who want manufacturing jobs, not more fed handouts to public employees. Even a lot of teachers realize more emergency funds from the feds don't solve what's gone wrong. Besides that, the 'pubs have two good candidates.
If only they don't get stupid and turn off conservatives. The invasion and manufacturing going overseas are huge issues the 'pubs could capitalize on.
It really wasn’t that surprising that Fisher won. Conservative activists from around the country may know more about Brunner than Fisher, but Fisher has more name recognition within Ohio. He’s the current Lt Gov and was Atty Gen in the early 90s. He also was the dem nominee against Taft in ‘98. Despite that, I expect Portman to win.
I do think OH is officially out of the Obama camp. He and LeBron have something in common...for the Cleveland area, it was all promises. They didn’t deliver.
True. On top of that, LeBron is a big Obama supporter. At this point Ohio is definitely out of the Obama camp. If the financial meltdown hadn’t occurred, Obama probably wouldn’t have been in the Obama camp to begin with and there is no way in hell Indiana would’ve been.
Seven points is narrow?
It actually looks like both Portman and Kasich have begun pulling away in these races.
My SWAG today would be:
Kasich wins by 12
Portman wins by 8
I grew up in Akron, don’t I know it!
However, there is a decent amount of conservatism in the Akron suburbs, which is tough to find even in suburban areas where I live now (Baltimore-Washington corridor).
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