Ohio Governor: Strickland surging in CBS Poll--tied among likely voters/ up by 5 with registered

[WI_DEM]

Democratic incumbent Ted Strickland is statistically tied with Republican challenger John Kasich among likely voters in the Ohio governor's race, a new CBS News/New York Times poll finds.


In the state's Senate race to replace retiring Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), meanwhile, the survey shows that Republican Rob Portman holds a comfortable 45 percent - 34 percent lead over Democrat Lee Fisher among likely voters.


Notably, both Democratic candidates fare better among voters overall than they do likely voters, reflecting the enthusiasm gap between energized Republicans and relatively apathetic Democrats going into the midterm elections.


Strickland leads Kasich by five points among all voters, while Portman's lead over Fisher shrinks to six points when all voters are counted.


In the 2006 midterm elections, Ohio Democrats were more enthusiastic than the state's Republicans about going to the polls. That has changed: Now, just 26 percent of Democrats say they are more enthusiastic about voting this year, while 57 percent of Republicans say they are more enthusiastic

Ohio

2010 Senate
45% Portman (R), 34% Fisher (D) (chart)

2010 Governor
43% Kasich (R), 42% Strickland (D) (chart)

www.pollster.com

[WI_DEM]

1. Re: "enthusiasm gap" just because today a dem tells a pollster they may not or are not sure if they

will vote doesn't mean that they won't vote on November 2. Of course the repukes are enthused because every day pundits and pollsters say they are going to win because they calculate they will vote in larger numbers, but if the polls include registered voters--the Dems are actually ahead in many of those races--and that is our task to get dems to actually turn out.