It might not be obvious to those outside Ohio why Republicans would feel the need to go after Democratic gubernatorial candidate Ed FitzGerald. Kasich has a comfortable 8.3 percentage point lead, according to TPM’s PollTracker. He tries to avoid talking about FitzGerald if possible and is running a largely positive ad campaign.
So why was the Republican Governors Association digging up the dirt on FitzGerald’s late-night 2012 car incident with a woman who was not his wife? It probably wasn’t to defeat FitzGerald in 2014. That already looks likely. Their goal might instead have been to bury the rising Democratic star for good.
Kasich was always going to be difficult to beat as Ohio’s economy slowly but surely rebounded and he tacked toward the center on issues like Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion after the uproar over his anti-union push shortly after taking office in 2011.
But for a relatively unknown but ambitious politician like FitzGerald, who had spent a successful term as the Cuyahoga County executive after a corruption-busting stint at the FBI, there would still be upside to challenging a formidable incumbent. He would get the chance to build up his name recognition across the state and develop relationships outside of the Cleveland area. That is a big key for any politician looking to break out of the frequently regionalized Ohio political spheres.
Democrats endorsing and stumping for FitzGerald, who is 46, have been effusive. Columbus Mayor Michael Coleman called him “Kennedyesque.” Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz referred to him as one of the party’s “rising stars.”
“Frankly I think he’s a leader of a new generation that’s coming up in our party,” Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley said while stumping for FitzGerald.
So if he ran a good race in 2014, the thinking goes, FitzGerald would have the first shot and a better chance to replace Kasich in 2018 (or 2016, if the governor caught the presidential or vice presidential bug) or vie for another major statewide office. “He’s out there on the statewide stage. He’s got his name out there,” University of Dayton political scientist Grant Neely told TPM on Tuesday. “He’d probably the Democrat that people would look to.”
But that comes with one condition, Neeley added: “As long as he doesn’t get completely trounced.”
In that context, the traffic-stop scandal — pretty transparently planted by Republican opposition researchers — makes more sense. It serves two purposes for Kasich. First, most importantly for him, a sizable 2014 win in a swing state is going to be an asset if Kasich does have any aspirations for higher office.
But, beyond his own legacy, Kasich blowing out FitzGerald and weakening the challenger for future races helps solidify the Republican Party’s standing in the state. Democrats don’t hold any other statewide offices and have an untested bench aside from well-liked retreads like former Gov. Ted Strickland. FitzGerald, the reformer with anti-corruption credentials, was one of their most appealing up-and-comers.
So Kasich’s campaign, as Neeley put it, is “obviously trying to win convincingly.”
“But for a relatively unknown but ambitious politician like FitzGerald, …”
…There may be no such thing as bad publicity. Insinuations and rumor-mongering might not end up being a substitute for actual policy that people want.
This classic GOP tactic worked better in 1962.
Fitzgerald just needs a bit more zing in his media including tighter shots of raging alcoholic Kasich.
Today, they’re in vapors over the latest revelation that Fitzgerald drove without a license.
This kind of “scandal” points more to Kasich’s desperation than to anything else. He’s even running an ad now talking about his parents’ deaths in a drunk-driving accident. This is the first I’ve heard of this in the however-many years he’s been running for office. That he has to reach that far for sympathy says a lot about the man.
I appreciate that you are getting around to the real story after having run with this story of a traffic stop involving no actual evidence of actual wrongdoing or immoral conduct for three days as if it was news rather than a transparently planted smear campaign based entirely on smarmy 1950s style innuendo.
And as to that, whatever. It’s August, the time of year when the brains of even the most intelligent political journalists turn to runny shit. But for god’s sake, can we please stop with the “woman who was not his wife” thing? Because a) the last laws making every woman some man’s quasi-property slid off the books of even the most rural states decades ago, b) it’s not intrinsically scandalous to be alone in a car with a woman you’re not married to, even very early/very late, because it turns out Queen Victoria is no longer on the goddamn throne of England, and c) it’s just generally embarrassing.
Thanks.
Fitzgerald was not drunk, and just had a temporary license which is not even a criminal crime. Republicans in Ohio are desperate to pin anything on Fitzgerald. I think this will backfire on Kasich big time since there are emails asking for the dirt. Kasich is a sad, sad man.