Cross posted at Buckeye State Blog.
A month ago, John Kasich told his supporters via his campaign website that today's campaign finance report would be his first opportunity to show how strong his campaign is. Oops...
While Governor Ted Strickland (D-OH) reported over $4 million on hand, Kasich has less than $500k on hand. Kasich is trying to shed the Bush Republican label in Ohio by talking about what a maverick Republican he was and different from the Bush Administration. ("We're maverick-y" worked so well for the GOP in Ohio in '08.) In contrast, the GOP's Treasurer candidate, who's taking on incumbent Kevin Boyce, reported over $1.3 million on hand.
It's going to be hard to do given the $11k donation he got from none other than Donald Rumsfeld. (Who listed his employment as "retired" HA!).
Kasich has been essentially campaigning for Governor almost immediately after Strickland was sworn into office. He's spent the last two years hitting the GOP county party circuit to drum up support. Fox News has been promoting him almost nearly as much as they did the Tea Party. (Although, to the best of my knowledge, Glenn Beck has yet to do a tearful appeal for Kasich.)
In other news, he's been caught telling the media one thing and the GOP faithful another... at the same event! To GOP audiences, he's promising to repeal Ohio's progressive income tax. In an interview with a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch before speaking to that crowd, he told the reporter he's likely not to do anything about income taxes in his "first term."
[UPDATE:] For information on the other statewides, check out my quick post at Buckeye State Blog. In short, David Pepper has nearly a 2:1 advantage over GOP incumbent Auditor Mary Taylor. Rich Cordray has $2M on hand to hold off Mike DeWine. But the Secretary of State office and Treasurer's office has significant GOP advantages. However, Ohio, like the nation, is a State where Democrats routinely win despite being outspent 3:1.