Ohio Governor's Race To Get Interesting And Not In The Polls

[Michael Deneen]

This story will produce some grade-school humor, not much else.
The story is largely irrelevant for two reasons:

1. Voters have repeatedly demonstrated that they don't care about politicians' infidelity.

2. This race has been over for many months. FitzGerald faced an uphill battle from Day One, but quickly buried himself with an incompetent campaign. He failed to do anything bold to energize the Obama Coalition....he's running as a vanilla corporate Democrat, which is a recipe for disaster.

The whole "race" has been pathetic. National media never even mentions it, even though Ohio is one of the two key Presidential battleground states. (Florida, in contrast, has a competitive campaign that is getting a lot of national press).

[Jim O'Bryan]

This story will produce some grade-school humor, not much else.
The story is largely irrelevant for two reasons:

The whole "race" has been pathetic. National media never even mentions it, even though Ohio is one of the two key Presidential battleground states. (Florida, in contrast, has a competitive campaign that is getting a lot of national press).

Mike

This is the Washington's Post take on the whole thing.

"As the Plain Dealer pointed out earlier this week, fewer than half of respondents to that Quinnipiac poll who live in northeast Ohio, his home base, had heard enough about him to register an opinion.
That number will almost certainly go up now."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/08/01/ed-fitzgeralds-name-recognition-is-about-to-get-a-boost-in-ohio-for-the-wrong-reasons/

Funny as I spoke with people today, Rs thought he was going down in flames, and Ds were
pretty much not phased by the news. When I heard it early this morning I thought, this
will hit Ed in the once place he has always placed himself, integrity, and honesty. Supporters
simply do not care. If Ed stops issuing press releases it goes away in 2 days.

.

[Grace O'Malley]

Well just about 20 minutes ago, Henry Gomez at the PD claimed that the other driver was Nate Kelly and Nate claims that Fitz and the woman left together while he agreed to stay behind to take the late night party people home. That is not how Fitz said it went down - he claims they were together and got "lost" from one another as they drove to the hotel (and he can't recall what hotel or even if it was in Westlake or Avon.)

Even if that scenario were true, why would you pull into a secluded lot well off a main road to "find" the rest of your group? Frankly, none of his explanations ring true, and the more he talks, the less I believe. Even if nothing happened , his actions displayed either an alarming lack of common sense or incredible arrogance.

I agree with Mike that it's over for him. No chance at being governor and I suspect his political career will suffer because this will not go away as quickly as some think.

[ryan costa]

these are all issues I don't care about.

[Colleen Wing]

I wonder if anyone would care more about this story if it involved a boss and an employee, or an appointee which it now seems to be alleged. I hope it does not. Sincerely. As smarmy and petty as Ed is, I have never thought that he was dishonest.

Over the last two years, I have been asked by too many unrelated people about a long term "situation". I have always defended Ed. I hope I am right. Time will tell.

[Grace O'Malley]

There's a lot out there on a lot of sites. What makes me think the story has legs is that James Renner, the investigative reporter that wrote the latest book on Amy Mihalovek, has been investigating the connection for awhile. And, there's just too many well-connected people that have said the same thing.

If its true, his political career will be trashed. What a shame. Another promising young politician who can't keep it in his pants.

[Michael Deneen]

The timing of this story is a bit interesting.
By many indications, rumors about this have been swirling for years.
So why put the story out on August 1st?

The traditional political strategy would be to hold the story as an "October Surprise" in order to tip the balance toward your candidate.

However, this race has been so wildly uncompetitive that I think Kasich has a different strategy.

Instead of waiting for Labor Day (the traditional time when campaigns heat up) he is toe-tagging FitzGerald before the first NFL exhibition game is played.

I think he is trying to "run up the score" to boost his cred for the 2016 VP slot.
If he can win Ohio by 15-20 points in 2014, then he sell the party brass on his ability to deliver the state in 2016.
The fact that the convention is in Cleveland demonstrates how badly the party needs Ohio.
Plus, the Cleveland convention would be great backdrop for his big "national introductory" speech.

[Stan Austin]

So what's Rob Portman in this scenario--- chopped liver?

[Michael Deneen]

Good point, Stan...a lot hinges on one important question:

Does Ohio have the "LBJ Rule", which allows a resident to run for both Senate and VP in the same election?
Rules vary by state....it is illegal in some, but allowed in others (most recently Connecticut).

I've tried to google up the answer....unfortunately, any search containing "LBJ" and "ohio" gives back thousands of Lebron stories.

[Bill Burnett]

[quote="Michael Deneen"]Good point, Stan...a lot hinges on one important question:

Does Ohio have the "LBJ Rule", which allows a resident to run for both Senate and VP in the same election?
Rules vary by state....it is illegal in some, but allowed in others (most recently Connecticut).

I've tried to google up the answer....unfortunately, any search containing "LBJ" and "ohio" gives back thousands of Lebron stories.[/quote]


Ohio does allow a candidate to run for President or Vice President and Congress/Senate in the same election. See Para. 23:

http://wvxu.org/post/would-rob-portman- ... -president

Of course I am assuming this is correct.
"It's on the Internet so it must be true"

[Michael Deneen]

Ohio does allow a candidate to run for President or Vice President and Congress/Senate in the same election. See Para. 23:

http://wvxu.org/post/would-rob-portman- ... -president

Of course I am assuming this is correct.
"It's on the Internet so it must be true"

Thank you, Bill.
Well, that definitely gives Kasich incentive to run up the score.
Portman won by 18 points in 2010.

The 2016 GOP Presidential nominee will go through a long, bloody primary fight that will pull him to the really, really, really, really, extreme right.
The party will need someone that appears "moderate" to balance the ticket.
I think one of those two has an excellent chance to be on the ticket.

Kasich can sell the notion of "bipartisan cooperation" (i.e. "I'm not one of the idiots that turned down ObamaCare money") and executive experience.
Portman will sell the "gay son" angle, which makes him seem reasonable to independent voters. Plus, he looks more polished (although I'm not sure that's such a good thing anymore...the electorate is tiring of "plastic politicians").

[Colleen Wing]

This story was released on a Friday night, anyone who knows about politics know what that means and not a peep by Sunday. A fellow democrat has more to gain from a wounded Fitz than anyone R. I think with Ed the news is so slow this at least makes him more interesting. If the most recent rumor is true than this is most likely a case of the fact that in politics people don't keep your secrets after you are of no use to them.

[Bill Burnett]

I am not one of those Democrats which automatically vote D in every single race. I always do vote the D in primaries and usually vote the D in the general elections but have on occasion voted for a (gulp) Republican. I voted for George Voinovich for Governor and Senator merely because I felt having a Clevelander in those positions would benefit us in N.E. Ohio which turned out to be true. I feel the same way with Fitz not because he is a fellow Democrat but because he is a Lakewoodite.

[Grace O'Malley]

Can it get any funnier? The PD is now reporting that Fitzgerald only had a temporary drivers license on the night in question and was therefore not in compliance with Ohio law - you need a licensed driver with you when you drive with a temp.

What a comedy of errors.

[Michael Deneen]

Can it get any funnier? The PD is now reporting that Fitzgerald only had a temporary drivers license on the night in question and was therefore not in compliance with Ohio law - you need a licensed driver with you when you drive with a temp.

What a comedy of errors.

Maybe she was teaching him how to pass the parallel parking test.