Called Out.

I was hoping Ohio media would jump all over Ted Strickland and the Ohio House Dems for the ridiculously named "Education Funding Protection Act".

And they have.

(I just figured it would come from the cynical Tom Suddes, not William Hershey)

When governors and lawmakers try to clean up a mess, they don’t like to say they did the spilling.

Instead, they decorate the cleanup with heroic, noble language. They also try to scare people.

In this case, Strickland and his fellow Democrats who control the House called their cleanup the “Education Funding Protection Act.”

Great to see reporters not buying into this mess.

In addition, a poll commissioned by Ohio's big 7 newspapers found the following:

...an early look at the likely gubernatorial matchup next year is more sobering for the incumbent.

Strickland is ahead of former central Ohio Congressman John Kasich, a Republican, by a single point -- 48 percent to 47 percent. That's well within the poll's margin of error.

This is the 2nd poll in a row showing the race in a deadheat, thereby confirming the trend.

Considering Kasich's name recognition in no way matches that of the Governor, that's bad news for Strickland. Traditionally, even if voters don't like the incumbent, they are hesitant to support his opposition if they don't know him.

An example of the importance of knowing the candidates is in the recent Florida numbers between Republicans Governor Crist and Marco Rubio, and Democrat Rep. Kendrick Meek.

In the Quinnipiac poll, Crist leads Meek 51-31. Meanwhile, Rubio trails Meek 36-33. Obviously, that's quite a discrepancy. So where's the difference? Knowing the candidates.

Only 10% don't know enough about Crist to have an opinion on him.

And a whopping 64% don't know enough about Rubio.

Now Kasich's name recognition numbers in Ohio aren't as bad as Rubio's in Florida, but according to Rasmussen, his unknowns are 4.5 times those of Strickland.

I wouldn't expect these name recognition numbers to change much over the next several months; not until Kasich ramps up his campaign and starts courting voters via grassroots and paid media means.

But when they do, watch out.