Ohio’s race for governor has reached an important phase.
Define
or be defined? That’s the question Republican incumbent John Kasich and
probable Democratic nominee Ed FitzGerald are facing as their campaigns
enter spring.
Kasich for the moment seems content to define
only himself and avoid any direct engagement with his opponent. His
recently introduced budget review
provides a sense of his priorities for his re-election year and beyond.
And when speaking across the state at GOP dinners, a reliable outlet
for partisan politics, Kasich sticks almost entirely to policy.
If he were president -- and FitzGerald really wants you to believe that Kasich wants to be
-- observers might call this a “Rose Garden” strategy. Kasich will pay
FitzGerald no mind until he must and in the meantime use the powers of
his office to project strength.
As the challenger, FitzGerald
spends far more time picking apart Kasich’s record than talking about
his own. The Cuyahoga County executive paints the governor as a creature
of Wall Street with one eye out for his rich friends, the other on the
White House.
So, for the moment, neither side is doing much, if
anything, to define FitzGerald. That is certain to change – and very
soon. And there are numbers that help explain why.
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