Democrats Hold Early Edge in Ohio Senate Race, Obama's Ratings Fall

July 7, 2009 10:16 AM | | Comments (1)

The two Democrat hopefuls to replace retiring GOP Sen. George Voinovich, Jennifer Brunner and Lee Fisher, are running neck-and-neck for the party's nomination, but both of them would lead (although, in one case, not by much) the two GOP candidates they were matched up against in a Quinnipiac University poll conducted June 26 - July 1.

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But they hold that edge in an economic environment bad enough that President Obama's approval ratings has slipped to 49 percent to 44 percent, and 48 percent to 46, disapproves of the way he is handling the economy. In May, his approval-to-disapproval ratio was 62 percent to 31 percent and his marks on the economy were 57 percent to 36 percent.

"The economy in Ohio is as bad as anywhere in America. These numbers indicate that for the first time voters have decided that President Barack Obama bears some responsibility for their problems," said Quinnipiac's Peter Brown.

The primary match-ups for both parties are kind of meaningless given the high percentage of undecideds in each.

Fisher leads Brunner 24 percent to 21 percent with 51 percent undecided. The margin of error is 4.5 points for this race.

On the Republican side of the Senate race, former congressman and Bush cabinet member Ron Portman would beat auto dealer Tom Ganley 33 percent to 10 percent if a primary were held today, with 55 percent undecided.

Democratic Fisher leads Republican Portman in a general election match-up by 37 percent to 33 percent with 26 percent undecided and Ganley by 36 percent to 30 percent with 31 percent undecided. Brunner is statistically tied with Portman at 35 percent to 34 percent with 29 percent undecided and leads Ganley 35 percent to 31 peercent with 31 percent undecided. The margin of error for the general election match-ups is 2.8 points.

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Categories: Presidential, Quinnipiac University, Senate

Tags: Brunner, Fisher, Ganley, Obama, Ohio, Portman

    Comments

  1. The title of this article does not match the contents. All of the numbers are so low (Mid-30's) as to be meaningless, quite frankly. The general election ballot tests are not only within margin of error but also worthlessly low. So to say Dems have an edge with numbers like these is suspect at best. And remember, the 2 Dems have already run statewide races whereas Portman represented 1/19 (1/20 in the 1990's) of the state.

    Posted by: NObama Author Profile Page | July 7, 2009 2:02 PM

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