Dispatch:
...As the governor nears the midpoint of his first term, 45 percent of Ohioans say he deserves another four years, 34 percent say he doesn't and 20 percent don't know. When paired against an unnamed Republican candidate, Strickland leads by 20 points.
The Democratic governor's 54-percent approval rating is his worst of the year in the Connecticut university's survey, but not by much; it was 55 percent in June, 56 percent in February. His 2008 high was 61 percent in August....
Two potential Republican challengers to Strickland do not have good prospects as gubernatorial candidates.
....The "haven't heard enough" response for a pair of former congressman is higher: for John R. Kasich of Westerville it's 73 percent, for Rob Portman of Cincinnati it's 80 percent. Of those who have heard enough, Kasich gets a favorable/unfavorable score of 18/8; for Portman it's 12/7....
Other candidates evaluated include Republican Sen. George Voinovich who is up for election in 2010. Voinovich approval rating is only 39% among Republicans. That makes him look very vulnerable to a Democratic challenger.The entire poll can be viewed at http://www.quinnipiac.edu/images/polling/oh/oh12102008.doc .
I'm sure that there will be a lot of potential candidates viewing the poll.