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From Bad to Worse for Fitzgerald

It’s been nothing but bad news for Democrat gubernatorial hopeful Edvard Fitzgerald.  From screwing up his campaign’s first press release and incredibly low participation and enthusiasm at his campaign events, to absolutely no name recognition and a huge money problem, Fitzy’s off to an incredibly tough start.

Apparently the national political pundits are taking notice, with Larry Sabato and Kyle Kondik updating the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics Crystal Ball, and let’s just say it isn’t good news for Eddy Fitz:

Kasich seems to be cruising along with decent approval ratings, and national Democrats appear to have many other, better targets for their third-party spending… Democrats also have their own incumbents to defend in places. In other words, Ohio’s gubernatorial race might be a bit down the national totem pole this cycle, which would be a relief to Kasich. Combine that with what we sense is a lack of enthusiasm among Democrats for FitzGerald — a Greater Clevelander who is little-known statewide — and one has to install Kasich as a sturdier favorite in this race. So we’re moving this race to LIKELY REPUBLICAN, from leans Republican.

These aren’t a bunch of conservative bomb-throwers—Sabato and Kondik are recognized as some of the most respected political prognosticators in the nation.  So when they say something, people listen.

Aside from Sabato & Kondik calling out Fitzy for “what we sense is a lack of enthusiasm,” the money quote here is “Ohio’s gubernatorial race might be a bit down the national totem pole this cycle.”  Hmmm… where have we heard that before?

The one “highlight” for Fitzy comes from the fact that almost 94% of his contributions came from Ohioans.  Yet, even that is a double-edged sword for Public Official 14.  As any politico will tell you, the race for Ohio’s Governor is a national campaign, and Democrats can’t win anything without big out-of-state dollars from Big Labor, like the AFL-CIO and the national teachers unions, who have the ability to steal massive amounts of money from their members and funnel it into political campaigns.

Though these numbers might suggest that Fitzy looks like a homegrown candidate, without big dollar national groups coming to his aid, he’s dead in the water. And so far, they’re staying on the sidelines…

Yep; we called it.

Over the last 7+ months, Fitzy has had the opportunity to prove to Democrats, both here in Ohio and nationally, that he was legit—that he was a good enough candidate with a good enough résumé and good enough resources.  Instead, he has bumbled and stumbled around like an amateurish candidate for student body president.  Aside from the gaffes mentioned in the first paragraph:

VoteForPublicOffical14

With a resume like that, it’s easy to see why national Democrats aren’t coming to Fitzy’s aid.  Heck, it’s a wonder how Ohio Democrats even tolerate his incompetence.  So, it’s really no wonder why the national punditry is now saying that 2014 favors Kasich.

The only real question is: why didn’t they make the change earlier?



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Third Base Politics is an Ohio-centric conservative blog that has been featured at Hot Air, National Review, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and others.

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