Republican Regret In Ohio

Backlash on union-busting in Ohio

by kos (Daily Kos)

There's buyer's remorse, then there's whatever you'd call this regarding the 2010 Ohio governor's race:

John Kasich (R) 49%, 2010 election - 40%, today
Ted Strickland (D) 47%, 2010 election - 55%, today

Those startling new numbers come from PPP, which finds that Ohio has turned viciously against its new Republican governor. While Kasich has gotten less attention than Scott Walker in Wisconsin, the Ohioan has been following the same anti-union playbook. And the results have been just as disastrous for him.


We find him with just a 35% approval rating and 54% of voters disapproving of him. His approval with people who voted for him is already all the way down to 71%, while he's won over just 5% of folks who report having voted for Ted Strickland last fall. Particularly concerning for him is a 33/54 spread with independents.

What's driving these numbers? SB 5, which eliminated collective bargaining for public unions. But don't worry, because Ohio voters have something called the "citizen veto", which allows them to overturn laws passed by the legislature and signed by the governor.

Ohio Senate Bill 5 may not be in effect for very long...54% of voters in the state say they'd repeal it in an election later this year while just 31% say they'd vote to let the bill stand.

The support for repealing SB 5 is reflective of a high level of support for unions and workers in Ohio, more so than we saw in Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago. 63% of voters in the state supportive collective bargaining for public employees to only 29% who oppose it. 52% of voters think public employees should have the right to strike, to 42% who think they should not. And 65% think public employees should have the same rights they do now- or more- while only 32% believe they should have fewer rights.

There are two things particularly notable in the crosstabs on all of these questions. The first is that non-union households are supportive of the public employees. 54% support their collective bargaining rights to 36% in opposition and 44% say they would vote to repeal SB 5 to 38% who would let it stand. Obviously that level of support is not nearly as high as among union households but it still shows that the workers have even most of the non-union public behind them.

This is going to be a great fall -- we get to engage on issue-centric election campaigns in both Wisconsin and Ohio, helping shape that all-important media narrative heading into the 2012 cycle. Consider this—the Republicans will be locked up in a Race to Crazy in their presidential contest, while voters in key Middle America battlegrounds deliver stinging rebukes. And of course, we get to recall Walker in early 2012. I can't think of a better way to turn the tide and begin reversing the pile of suck that was 2010.

Kasich, like his buddy Walker in Wisconsin, grossly overstepped his boundaries in a bid to impose his rigid anti-middle class ideology on the state. He is now paying for it in popular support. And while Ohio does not have Wisconsin-style recall laws on the books, voters in the state can vote to overturn the governor's worst excesses at the ballot box and start organizing for 2012.

Because as painful as the likes of John Kasich, Scott Walker, and Florida's Rick Scott might be, they are also shaping up as our best weapons for holding those key battleground states in 2012.