Gov. John Kasich still holds a lead over Democratic opponent Ed FitzGerald in next year's race for governor, but that lead appears to be shrinking. The latest Quinnipiac poll has Kasich at 44% to FitzGerald’s 37%, which compares to 47% to 33% in Quinnipiac’s June survey. Peter Brown conducts the poll, and says while Kasich’s lead from the June poll has been cut in half, it’s still good news for the incumbent governor.
“They're clearly more people who think he's doing a job and at this point than are saying that they're going to vote for him for a new term versus Ed FitzGerald," says Brown. "But it's better to be ahead than behind and while seven points is less than it had been, it's still nice lead.”
The poll also shows FitzGerald has a lot of work to do in name recognition. 71% of respondents said they don’t know enough about him to form an opinion. And the survey suggests a possible problem for Kasich with Republicans and Medicaid expansion. 65% said it was a bad idea, though 74% of Democrats said it was a good idea.
