With less than five weeks to go before election day, the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor, Ed FitzGerald, trails Republican incumbent John Kasich by 22 percentage points, according to an independent poll released Wednesday.
Perhaps the worst news in Quinnipiac University鈥檚 poll of likely Ohio voters is that one out of four Democrats surveyed said they would vote for the Republican Kasich.
鈥淥hio Gov. Kasich, who hit some bumps in the road early in his first term, looks like he鈥檚 on a freeway to an easy re-election victory,鈥欌�� Peter A. Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, said in a release.
Kasich鈥檚 lead among male voters stands at 31 percent, while women voters favor Kasich over FitzGerald by 52 percent to 39 percent. Brown said that is 鈥渟omething almost unheard of in this era of the gender gap.鈥�
The Quinnipiac Poll gave Kasich a positive favorable rating of 54 percent to 30 percent among likely voters, while FitzGerald had a negative favorable rating of 21 percent to 29 percent, with 48 percent saying they don鈥檛 know enough about the Democratic candidate 鈥� who is the Cuyahoga County Executive 鈥� to form an opinion of him.
Brown said this poll does not bode well for the rest of the Democrats who are challenging Republican incumbents for other statewide offices.
鈥淚f Kasich wins by 20 percent or more, it will be difficult for any of the under ticket Democrats to survive,鈥欌�� Brown said.
The Connecticut-based Quinnipiac University Polling Institute conducts polling in a number of state that are considered key battleground states in presidential elections.
This poll was conducted between Sept. 24-29 among 999 likely Ohio voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percent. Both land line and cell phones were called in the survey.
You can read the full poll
