Today, Quinnipiac released its first poll on the Kasich-FitzGerald matchup since June.

Those results are available here.

BACKGROUND:

In today’s poll, Gov. Kasich had 44-37 percent lead over Cuyahoga Co. Executive Ed FitzGerald, narrowing 7 points in FitzGerald’s favor since the last Quinnipiac poll in June.The Governor’s favorability rating also continued to trend downward, dropping six points since the last poll to 41-30.

While today’s Quinnipiac poll is a marked improvement for FitzGerald over the firm’s last poll, it still does not give an accurate representation of the race since Libertarian Charlie Earl was not included. In a recent PPP poll, Earl garnered 6% of the electorate, many of whom were likely Kasich supporters.

POINTS:

• No wonder the Republicans tried (and failed) to keep the Libertarians off the ballot in Ohio.
• In Today’s Q Poll, Kasich’s approval is down and he holds a small lead in a two way race against Ed FitzGerald.
• Despite not being as well-known across the state as the Governor, FitzGerald is gaining because people fundamentally disagree with John Kasich’s policies.
• But we can’t tell how close this race really is because the Q poll failed to include Libertarian Charlie Earl.
• A similar PPP poll with Libertarian Charlie Earl has the three-way race dead even.
• A month ago in the Virginia Governor’s race, the Libertarian candidate cost Republicans the election. This is shaping up to be Virginia all over again.