COLUMBUS, Ohio – Hitting the airwaves early may be paying off for Gov. John Kasich, who has tripled his lead over his Democratic challenger in the latest poll from Quinnipiac University.
The poll released Wednesday morning shows the Republican widening his lead over Ed FitzGerald to 15 points with about six months to go before the election.
In the same poll, voters gave Kasich the highest approval rating of his term in office so far: 56 percent.
“Voters think Gov. Kasich deserves another term and two-thirds consider him a strong leader. A small majority says he cares about their needs, a measure on which Republicans, even successful ones, often don’t do that well. And perhaps most important for Kasich’s re-election, 60 percent of voters are satisfied with the way things are going in the state,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.
The survey of registered voters shows Kasich ahead of FitzGerald 50 percent to 35 percent. The same poll in February had Kasich leading by a 43-to-38 percent margin.
Kasich’s campaign began airing TV commercials back in April, well before he would come to grips with FitzGerald who was still facing a primary challenge. The campaign was supplemented by one launched by the Republican Governor’s Association.
According to the poll Kasich has a commanding lead among men (56-30 percent) and leads among independent voters by a comfortable 49–32 percent margin.
The May 7-12 survey notes that many Ohioans still don’t know much about FitzGerald. The survey said 63 percent of voters don’t know enough about the Cuyahoga County executive to form an opinion of him.
The poll also found Ohioans favor the death penalty for convicted murderers.
The survey of 1,174 voters has a margin of error of just under 3 percentage points.