Cleveland Plain Dealer...
Poll: Effort to repeal SB5, Ohio’s new collective bargaining law, has huge lead; support for Kasich drops again
By Reginald Fields  
October 26, 2011 

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio’s new collective bargaining law appears to be headed for a decisive defeat as an effort to repeal so-called Senate Bill 5 is now favored overwhelmingly by voters, according to  the latest Quinnipiac University poll. 

Opponents of Issue 2, the referendum to repeal the new law, now have a comfortable 25-point lead -- 57 to 32 percent -- with just two weeks to go before the Nov. 8 election. An election that last month was appearing to grow closer all of sudden is again shaping up to be a blowout. 

“The opponents had seen their 24-point margin in July close over the summer and early autumn. As we enter the home stretch, however, they have once again taken a commanding lead,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. “Except for Republicans, just about every demographic group favors repealing the law.” 

The poll is again further proof that the collective bargaining law’s popularity is undeniably tied to Republican Gov. John Kasich, who has championed the law from the outset of the legislative process. He took office in January vowing to revise the statute governing how public employees bargain for their wages and other workplace benefits. 

In September, Kasich’s approval rating reached 40 percent, his highest total since taking office, according to the Quinnipiac poll. That same poll, released Sept. 27, also had showed support for Issue 2 had grown rapidly. 

But in this latest poll, as support to repeal the law has rebounded, voter dissatisfaction with Kasich has again soured. His approval rating has dipped to 36 percent while his disapproval number has again climbed to 52. 

“The governor and his team can’t be optimistic about the fate of their law,” Brown said. SB5 was pushed through the Republican-controlled legislature without any Democratic support. Ohio’s powerful labor unions formed a coalition to get the referendum on the ballot. The law has not taken effect while the referendum has been pending. 

The only group of voters that Kasich and the collective bargaining law is polling well with is Republicans. But independent voters, who carried Kasich to a win in the November 2010 election over incumbent Democrat Ted Strickland, have abandoned him. 

The bottom line is voters do not appear to agree with Kasich’s central argument that collective bargaining restraints are needed to help control local government spending and in turn help the state manage its finances. Just 34 percent of voters are buying that logic, the lowest total recorded this year by a Quinnipiac poll. 

The increased support for repeal also comes just weeks after Grannygate, the uproar that ensued when Republicans on the pro-Issue 2 side admitted lifting footage of a Cincinnati great-grandmother who appeared in an anti-Issue 2 commercial and making it appear as if she supported the law. 

Issue 2 supporters said Marlene Quinn made herself a public figure, so legally, they could use her image as they pleased. But opponents of Issue 2 called it deceptive and misleading advertising. 

Read this and other articles at Cleveland Plain Dealer