FitzGerald announces Ohio tour
4/19/2013Ed FitzGerald, the Democratic Cuyahoga County executive, has announced a tour of Ohio's Three-C cities on Wednesday to make an announcement next week - in all likelihood a kickoff to his run for governor.
Mr. FitzGerald has scheduled speaking events starting at 12:30 p.m. in Cleveland, followed by events in Columbus in the afternoon and Cincinnati in the evening.
Mr. FitzGerald has already announced the formation of an exploratory campaign committee, something no other Democrat has done. If he indeed runs, Mr. FitzGerald would face Republican incumbent Gov. John Kasich in the 2014 gubernatorial race.
In an announcement Friday to campaign supporters, Mr. FitzGerald said, "We need a governor who will stand up for middle class families, for women’s rights, and for good paying jobs. Ohioans want an end to pay to play politics, rampant cronyism and wasteful spending of our tax dollars on corporate donors and political perks. As a former FBI agent I’ve seen first-hand how, with the right leadership, we can turn our communities around and reclaim our state."
A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday said Mr. Kasich leads Mr. FitzGerald by 46 percent to 37 percent, but with three-quarters of Ohio voters not knowledgeable enough about Mr. FitzGerald to have an opinion. The poll said that Ohio voters approve 52-34 percent of the job Mr. Kasich is doing.