PPP confirms Kasich's widening lead

Guest posted by Bytor

It has been a rough day for Ted Strickland.

First, as reported by Jed earlier, Rasmussen Reports released their latest poll on the Ohio gubernatorial race, where John Kasich (R) leads the current governor 47-39.

But that's Rasmussen. The left always tells us that Rasmussen is not to be trusted because they are biased towards the right. So a poll on the same race by Public Policy Polling (PPP) should show slightly more favorable results for Strickland, right? After all, they are a Democrat affiliated polling firm, the official pollster for DailyKos. Surely they will have better news for Ted?

Not so much.

PPP finds Kasich beating Strickland 50-40 among likely voters. Oof.

Note that this is the first poll PPP has done among likely, not registered, voters, and how well the results now fall into line with Rasmussen's, who always uses "likely" voters.

The two polls show very similar results for other measures as well.

Strickland's job approval:
Rasmussen: 39-59 for a net -20
PPP: 34-52 for a net -18

The candidates own party support:
Rasmussen: Kasich earns 86% of Republicans, Strickland earns 75% of Democrats
PPP: Kasich earns 89% of Republicans, Strickland earns 78% of Democrats

That should put to rest the notion from Democrats that Strickland is stealing GOP votes from Kasich based on his endorsements from the NRA and Buckeye Firearms Association.

“Republicans are united around John Kasich, and independents are likely to go strongly toward him as well. To win, Ted Strickland has the Herculean task of bringing disloyal
Democrats back to the fold and getting more of his party faithful out to the polls than
plan to vote now,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling.

One more little tidbit. PPP also asked "Who would you rather have as President: George W. Bush or Barack Obama?"

By a margin of 50-42, Ohio voters would rather have W back. Ted, please tell us again how you will help to ensure Obama wins Ohio again in 2012. That should be as effective as all of those negative ads you're running.