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Ohio GOP Independent Poll Encourages Petro & Blackwell PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jeff Garvas   
Saturday, 28 January 2006

The Ohio GOP Chairman is still trying to get one of the Republican contenders for Governor to drop out of the race, according to various news reports.

From Blackwell's campaign:
An independent Ohio Republican Party poll showed Secretary of State Ken Blackwell with a commanding 10 point head to head lead over Attorney General Jim Petro, 40%-30%, with 29% undecided, despite Petro's $1.6 million television blitz in December and January. The McLaughlin & Associates research also said Blackwell is in a position to extend his lead.
Jim Petro's campaign saws a silver lining to these cloudy results:

From an Associated Press report:
But Petro's campaign said the poll's general election results said he had a better chance of beating a Democrat.
Petro is expected to announce a replacement running mate on Monday, January 30th

Updated: Minutes after we posted this story the Petro Campaign issued a statement via email titled "ORP Poll Shows Petro Strongest in General Election":
A poll conducted for the Ohio Republican Party shows that Jim Petro is the strongest candidate to face Ted Strickland in the General Election.

In a head to head contest Jim Petro is within the poll's margin of error with Petro 36%, Strickland 39% and 25% undecided. The same survey shows that Ted Strickland has a comfortable 6 point lead over Ken Blackwell with Blackwell at 33%, Strickland 39% and 27% undecided.

A more significant statistic presented by the poll is the preferences of respondents who have an opinion of both candidates, sometimes referred to as the "informed ballot." The survey shows that the General Election informed ballot has Jim Petro in a dead heat with Ted Strickland at 36% each with 28% undecided. Among that same subset Ted Strickland crushes Ken Blackwell by 24%; Strickland has 56%, Blackwell 32% and 12% are undecided on the informed ballot.
It seems as if these mixed results are likely to give both candidates a reason to stay in the race instead of convincing one to drop out.

The Blackwell campaign has been told they're more likely to beat Petro in a primary, and likely to become more popular with time. The Petro campaign has been told they're more likely to win the eventual general election.

Motivation for either candidate to leave the race is the one thing these results failed to produce for GOP Chairman Bob Bennet.