Today, Public Policy Polling (PPP), one of the most accurate pollsters in America, released the first public poll to show former FBI agent and Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald leading Ohio’s Governor John Kasich in a straight matchup. The poll can be found here.

In a survey of 551 Ohio voters from August 16 – 19, PPP reported FitzGerald with a three-point lead over Kasich, 38-35, in the race for Governor next year. Kasich’s approval/disapproval rating also suffered, dropping a full 10 points to 42-47%, since the last time PPP polled in the Governor’s race last year.

Nearly four years ago, PPP reported one of the first polls to show Ohio’s incumbent Governor was vulnerable, with John Kasich trailing in that race by two points.

Today’s poll is the first survey of Ohioans in the Governor’s race since passage of John Kasich’s radical state budget, or news revealed that he and his friends personally benefitted financially from his secretive public-private economic development fund, JobsOhio.

As Ohio’s economy slows to 47^th in the nation in job growth under Governor Kasich’s policies, Ed FitzGerald is strongly positioned to win.

We attribute Governor Kasich’s drop in polling to a number of factors:

1. Kasich and his friends were caught self-dealing with JobsOhio. According to breaking reports by the Dayton Daily News and the AP, six of the nine board members of JobsOhio, Kasich’s secretive economic development agency, had direct financial ties to companies receiving public funds. Even worse, Kasich himself received personal compensation while Governor from a company receiving state funding.
2. In June, Kasich signed a state budget dramatically shifting Ohio’s tax burden onto the middle class. Kasich’s budget radically shifted the tax burden onto Ohio’s middle-class families, raising the sales tax, ending breaks for seniors, and increasing the cost of future property taxes – all in order to pay for cuts for the rich.
3. Kasich’s budget sets women’s health care back 60 years. The Governor’s budget was so extreme it defunded Planned Parenthood, and included a number of other attacks, setting women’s health care back a generation.

From serving as an FBI agent on the Organized Task Force, assistant prosecutor, Lakewood mayor, and county executive, Ed FitzGerald has brought down corrupt public officials, cleaned up govenment and fought to make government work for the middle class.

For more information, visit EdFitzGeraldForOhio.