Ohio Megathread

[Vega]

[Lief 🗽]

Should have done the honorable thing and dropped out when we could have still replaced him. Unfortunately, Cheatin' Ed FiTzGeRaLd doesn't know the word "honor."

[Miles]

State Dems cutting their loses in the Gov race. They're investing in turnout to salvage downballot races.

[Peeperkorn]

State Dems cutting their loses in the Gov race. They're investing in turnout to salvage downballot races.

What a fInking failure.

[moderatevoter]

Where's Adam?

[Niemeyerite]

Where's Adam?

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

Where's Adam?

[LeBron]

Can someone explain to me what makes this scandal so devastating to Fitzgerald? I mean, I never thought he would win in the first place, but this always seemed like a whole bunch of nothing to me.

Well, a lot of voters, mainly women, are now turning against FitzGerald because they think and are appalled that Ed would cheat on his wife; even though those women have little evidence to show for it. That and licensegate, lack of judgment, lack of transparency, and still some sentiments about his choice of Eric Kearney. If you compare the last 2 OH-Dem PPP internals, Fitzy had a +1 lead among women in July, and now Kasich has the women vote by 7. It really should be nothing, but the ORP saw a golden opportunity to make FitzGerald's first major statewide ID known through an alleged affair which distracted everyone from the campaign itself.

Now onto something shocking you guys are about to hear from me. Not only the polls, but the personal experience of campaigning just tells me that we can't beat Kasich. There are Democratic women in my area who are saying they won't vote for FitzGerald now, but they won't cast a vote for Kasich, either. Basically, a + for Rios and higher dropoffs that would have otherwise went to Fitzy. It's at least relieving from the aspect that they're willing to care about their own self-interests and still reject Kasich considering a vote for Kasich is a vote for de-funding Planned Parenthood, shutting down abortion clinics, and a 6-week abortion ban to come. The state Democratic Party is giving up on FitzGerald and even FitzGerald's giving up on FitzGerald. He's been giving a lot of his campaign contributions to a voter turnout initiative for more young and minority voters to turnout to vote this November; thus helping down-ballot. I'm still going to campaign for FitzGerald and I'm optimistic that he'll return to run for an office in 2018, but for now, this is not winnable. On the plus side, this means we're favored to control redistricting in 2021 seeing as how another term of Kasich and Ohio GOP control will not go well for their approval numbers in the long run.

We're slightly favored in Treasurer though and we also have a pretty good chance at knocking off Husted. Mandel and Husted are incredibly unpopular and to Husted's dismay, this race has become one of the most nationalized races in Ohio this year with tons of negative publicity for Husted over the state's modern-day Jim Crow laws. If he survives, it will only be b/c Husted has a large cash advantage and Turner is too polarizing of a politician to win statewide in a midterm, but it will be very, very close.

[IceSpear]

I would think the driver's license thing would hurt FitzGerald more than the fake affair.

[SWE]

Adam thinks Kasich will win? Time to move this race to Safe R.

[TTS1996]

Can someone explain to me what makes this scandal so devastating to Fitzgerald? I mean, I never thought he would win in the first place, but this always seemed like a whole bunch of nothing to me.

Well, a lot of voters, mainly women, are now turning against FitzGerald because they think and are appalled that Ed would cheat on his wife; even though those women have little evidence to show for it. That and licensegate, lack of judgment, lack of transparency, and still some sentiments about his choice of Eric Kearney. If you compare the last 2 OH-Dem PPP internals, Fitzy had a +1 lead among women in July, and now Kasich has the women vote by 7. It really should be nothing, but the ORP saw a golden opportunity to make FitzGerald's first major statewide ID known through an alleged affair which distracted everyone from the campaign itself.

Now onto something shocking you guys are about to hear from me. Not only the polls, but the personal experience of campaigning just tells me that we can't beat Kasich. There are Democratic women in my area who are saying they won't vote for FitzGerald now, but they won't cast a vote for Kasich, either. Basically, a + for Rios and higher dropoffs that would have otherwise went to Fitzy. It's at least relieving from the aspect that they're willing to care about their own self-interests and still reject Kasich considering a vote for Kasich is a vote for de-funding Planned Parenthood, shutting down abortion clinics, and a 6-week abortion ban to come. The state Democratic Party is giving up on FitzGerald and even FitzGerald's giving up on FitzGerald. He's been giving a lot of his campaign contributions to a voter turnout initiative for more young and minority voters to turnout to vote this November; thus helping down-ballot. I'm still going to campaign for FitzGerald and I'm optimistic that he'll return to run for an office in 2018, but for now, this is not winnable. On the plus side, this means we're favored to control redistricting in 2021 seeing as how another term of Kasich and Ohio GOP control will not go well for their approval numbers in the long run.

We're slightly favored in Treasurer though and we also have a pretty good chance at knocking off Husted. Mandel and Husted are incredibly unpopular and to Husted's dismay, this race has become one of the most nationalized races in Ohio this year with tons of negative publicity for Husted over the state's modern-day Jim Crow laws. If he survives, it will only be b/c Husted has a large cash advantage and Turner is too polarizing of a politician to win statewide in a midterm, but it will be very, very close.

It's highly appropriate your avatar is D-UK because your self-righteous attitude would've fit in just right with the Yes to AV campaigners in the 2011 referendum, and with the Yes to Independence campaigners in Scotland right now.

You've no appreciation that your side might be wrong, that the voice of the people might be against you; in your own head, FitzGeRaLd is the perfect man for the job, everything Kasich has done the last four years is the work of the devil, and the only reason your side is losing is because your opponents are Machiavellian devils (your side, naturally, would never stoop so low, as they have the angels on their side instead) and the press was bought.

Naturally, left to themselves, oi polloi would give you a 98% victory, with only 'the 1%' backing the other side, but their tiny plebeian minds have been twisted by Tory/Republican gold, and nothing else.

I should like to say 'eat (Jim) crow' but the left never does that; it blames external factors or money, and never accepts it's wrong.

[Suburbia]

I guess FitzGerald will likely lose by 10-12 points, and the question after is which Ohio Democrat can defeat Senator Portman in 2016? I would rate that race in 2016 as "Lean R".

[Panda Express]

What would happen if Wolf and FitzGerald traded places? Wolf runs in Ohio against Kasich and FitzGerald runs against Corbett.

[nolesfan2011]

nice job recruiting DNC/DGA/Ohio Dems!

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

The only alternative was running Strickland again and he declined already.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

The only alternative was running Strickland again and he declined already.

Strickland was never a reasonable alternative nor would any A-list candidate be someone to have replaced FitzGerald with.  No one would've expected a replacement to win, the idea would've been to dig up some termed out State Rep/State Senator and run him/her instead to try to stop the bleeding regarding base turnout.  Anyone who met basic standards of credibility would do as long as they can play the part of generic D.  It'd be a good way for a B or C list candidate to boost statewide name recognition and have a number of folks in the Ohio Democratic Party owe them a favor.  FitzGerald has negative name ID, whereas Sutton or a generic termed-out State Rep/State Senator would simply have no name ID.

[LeBron]

What would happen if Wolf and FitzGerald traded places? Wolf runs in Ohio against Kasich and FitzGerald runs against Corbett.

I can tell you what happens; I cast a vote for Anita Rios.

But yeah, speaking of which, I just got my absentee ballot application in the mail yesterday. I don't know if I'm voting in-person or absentee yet (I voted in-person in the May primary), but I sent in the filled out application for the heck of it. The odd thing to note though about these new absentee applications is they were sent out by Husted when they were formerly sent out by my county and other counties who decided to send them out. The new law Kasich signed this year forbade that practice, and now can only be sent out statewide if the state legislature appropriates the money for them and Husted chooses to send them out.

Luckily, we had the federal money to mail absentee ballots statewide this year from the Help America Vote Act that was passed federally about a decade ago, but once we run out of federal funds, then that's when Republicans can screw all of us over.

Early voting begins Oct. 7th and early voting hours and Golden Week were luckily restored just in time (Oct. 6th is the registration deadline). I'll probably be voting straight Democratic for Fitzy, Turner, Pillich, Pepper, Carney, O'Donnell, Letson, Antonio, Skindell and so forth.

[Chancellor Tanterterg]

I will be writting in Joffrey Baratheon/The Brave Little Toaster for Gov/LG

I am mad at FitzGerald for more reasons than I can begin to count, but Kasich is...well...yeah, that's not happening either   I considered Rios, but she's too out there (making any form of cooperation with the NSA a felony is insane and she spelled "fracking" as "fracturing").  Plus, she seems to be the bad kind of left-wing protest candidate

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Ed Fitzgerald endorses medical marijuana (nobody say it)

[Kushahontas]

Ed Fitzgerald endorses medical marijuana (nobody say it)

lol

[Lief 🗽]

Ed Fitzgerald endorses medical marijuana (nobody say it)

lol

Son of a bitch is gonna need it, after the rough spanking Kasich deals him in the fall.

[free my dawg]

topkek

[LeBron]

Yep, Ed FitzGerald, the same man whose never smoked marijuana before, has endorsed marijuana for medical purposes as well as David Pepper, who's running for Attorney General. Here's the Cincinnati and Cleveland newspaper stories on it.

Even though the effort is futile, it wouldn't have been a bad campaign strategy before everything went downhill for Ed. Aside from background checks for all gun sales, medical cannabis is overwhelmingly supported by Ohioans, and of course, Ed's plan from this is try to enthuse younger voters to turning out for the likes of Turner and Pillich. It's worth a try, but the Ohio Rights Group failed to get the sigs they needed to get the referendum issue on the ballot this year, so it won't be as big of an issue this year in Ohio as originally believed.

An interesting dynamic is playing in Ohio now regarding the number of drug issues. Even though Fitzy and Pepper support medical marijuana, Kasich and DeWine are personally opposed, but their Democratic opponents are attacking them in this campaign for not being hard enough on harder drugs (ex. Fitzy and Pepper have attacked Kasich/DeWine for doing nothing about the heroin epidemic and cutting funding for DARE).

For those wondering, I will still be casting a vote for FitzGerald, despite this. Like I said, I'm not a one-issue voter.

[TJ in Oregon]

Sure, why not? FitzGerald would take whatever position he needed to if he thought it'd help him get elected. Of course no one believes him when he says good morning by this point.

[Attorney General, LGC Speaker, and Former PPT Dwarven Dragon]

Fitzgerald should do as Lee Fisher did in 2010 when he realized he couldn't beat Rob Portman - stop campaigning entirely, and give all remaining campaign funds to Democrats in more competitive races.