Governor Kasich Approval Rating Hits High, Possible Challenger Still Largely Unknown

Ohio Gov. John Kasich scored record-high poll numbers Tuesday — a milestone that comes as a state budget substantially different than he imagined nears the finish line.

In a survey this month of 941 registered voters, Quinnipiac University of Hamden, Conn., measured Kasich’s job-approval rating at 54 percent, up 2 percentage points from April and a previous high of 53 percent in February.

Ohio’s steadied job market has boosted the first-term Republican. Fifty-two percent of respondents approve of Kasich’s handling of the economy. And a plurality — 46 percent to 38 percent — are pleased with his budgeting.

Those numbers and others also show early struggles for Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, the only Democrat campaigning to unseat Kasich in next year’s election. Voters favor Kasich over FitzGerald, 47 percent to 33 percent.

“Ohio voters think their economy is getting better and they credit Mr. Kasich more than they credit President Barack Obama for that brightening economic environment,” said Peter Brown of Quinnipiac’s Polling Institute. “Of course there are still 16 months until Election Day, so anything can happen. After all, 16 months ago, Kasich’s job approval was a negative 40-46 percent, at the beginning of his reversal of fortunes from when his job approval was in the 30s.”

The poll, which has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points, is the first public and independent look at the Ohio gubernatorial race since FitzGerald formally declared his candidacy in late April. The results show he sustained no bounce from that announcement, despite frequent trips to all corners of the state to promote himself beyond Greater Cleveland.

Seventy-six percent of voters surveyed had not heard enough about FitzGerald to have an opinion of him — a number that has not moved since mid-April, the last time Quinnipiac asked about him. And Quinnipiac underscored FitzGerald’s name-recognition challenges Tuesday by unintentionally referring to him once as “Fitzpatrick” in a news release.

Among the quarter of respondents who were familiar with FitzGerald, 15 percent find him favorable. Kasich, whom 22 percent said they hadn’t heard enough about, is viewed favorably by 47 percent of voters who participated. And 49 percent believe the governor deserves a second term — not quite half, but an improvement over previous polls.

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