President Barack Obama salutes while walking down the steps of Air Force One as he arrives in Youngstown Ohio to attend a roundtable event with auto workers at the GM Lordstown Assembly Plant, Sept. 15, 2009. Following the President are Sen. Sherrod Brown, Rep. Tim Ryan, Rep. Betty Sutton (obscured) and Rep. Charlie Wilson. (Pete Souza/White House/Pinnacle Images)
The polling has been great for Sherrod Brown for 2012.
Back in December of last year, shortly after Ohio was pretty much ground zero for the Democratic wipeout in the 2010 midterm, Sherrod Brown was looking like he was in dire shape, polling in the low 40s. A funny thing happened since then, though: people got to see what it’s like again to have Republicans in charge (in Ohio’s case, with John Kasich in charge as governor, who at this point would lose to Ted Strickland by 25 points in a PPP hypothetical-rematch poll). The overall shift in the direction of the political winds — particularly pronounced in Ohio — has taken what initially looked like a Tossup, given a decent GOP challenger, and it turned it into what’s looking like a snooze instead, with Brown racking up leads in the vicinity of 20 and hovering around the magic ’50’ mark.
Kasich is a complete disaster for the GOP in Ohio. President Obama should be feeling better as well.
Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich listens as United States President Barack Obama makes remarks during a meeting with a bipartisan group of governors hosted by the President and Vice President Joe Biden in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Monday, February 28, 2010. UPI/Ron Sachs/Pool
When the GOP swept into power in states like Ohio and Wisconsin, many pundits speculated that this would be terrible news for President Obama and Democrats in 2012. Yet they didn’t take into account some of the radical changes and cuts that would be passed by these governors, and now we’re seeing that Governors like John Kasich might be the best asset for Obama and the Democrats next year if these poll numbers hold up..
In Ohio, Republican Gov. John Kasich’s approval rating stood at just 30 percent last week, according to a Quinnipiac University poll. Earlier in the month — even before Kasich detailed a budget featuring cuts to Medicaid, local governments and more — the University of Cincinnati had that number at 40 percent. Both surveys showed nearly half of voters disapproved of Kasich.
Kasich has plenty of problems. First, he’s very abrasive. Then, he declared war on the unions in Ohio, including the police and firefighters unions that traditionally support Republicans. Now he’s paying the price.
So much for jobs and the economy. The GOP in Ohio is now pushing the far right social agenda with some pretty extreme proposals on abortion, such as the heartbeat bill.
Will the Ohio electorate like this? My guess is that the GOP is in for a rude awakening . . . again, as they embrace the Ken Blackwell agenda that was so thoroughly rejected four years ago. Meanwhile, John Kasich keeps acting like he’s the new king of Ohio.
It might turn out that the GOP win in Ohio in 2010 might actually help Obama and the Democrats in 2012 as people turn away from these new leaders.
I wonder if Governor Kasich’s decision to kill the high-speed rail project in Ohio will come back to haunt him. Many people who voted for him were surprised when he killed the project, which would be great for Ohio’s transportation infrastructure, Ohio jobs and Ohio technology.
