2010 Ohio Governor - Kasich vs. Strickland

11/2/10 7:25am -- The polls are close, but Kasich is in the lead and Strickland is below 50 percent.  An upset isn't impossible, but these type of situations typically don't work out well for incumbents.

10/21/10 -- Right now the CNN/Time poll showing Strickland up looks like an outlier.  But most trends start out with polls that look like outliers at first.  Hopefully we'll get some new polls in here soon.

10/11/10 -- Strickland has been firing away at Kasich, and seems to have knocked the Congressman down a few notches.  But he hasn't done much to improve his own position.  Strickland still can't get above 45 percent in the polls, with little time to turn things around.

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2006 saw one of the largest gubernatorial blowouts in Senate history, as Congressman Ted Strickland blew out Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell by a 60-37 margin. Blackwell was seen as a rising star by state and national Republicans, but the national Democratic tide, combined with Blackwell’s across-the-board conservatism, led to a blowout in this swing state.

Strickland’s tenure as Governor has been rocky, as the state shed both jobs and population. He came under heavy fire when an intern lost a list of state employees and their social security numbers. His job approval ratings have drifted under 50 percent.

Strickland initially trailed GOP Congressman John Kasich in their head-to-head matchups. Kasich was a former Congressman and chair of the budget committee that produced the country’s last balanced budgets. But Kasich has something of an Achilles Heel -- from 2001-2008 he was employed by Lehman Brothers, the investment firm whose collapse precipitated the financial system collapse of 2008. Strickland has hit Kasich hard on his ties to the bank, and may be able to use these ties to seal the congressman’s fate.