Ohio Poll: Strickland leads by 12

Democrat Ted Strickland holds a 12 percentage point lead over Republican Ken Blackwell in the Ohio governor’s race, while Democrat Sherrod Brown’ has a small lead over Republican incumbent Mike DeWine, according to the new Ohio Poll.

Strickland lead in the Ohio Poll is smaller than 21 percent lead reported by the Quinnipiac Poll released Tuesday, but considerably more than the 5.5 percent lead he had in last week’s Zogby Interactive Poll.

The Ohio Poll, conducted by UC’s Institute for Policy Research, showed Brown, a congressman from Lorain, with a four percentage point lead over DeWine. With the poll’s margin of error 3.8 percent margin of error factored in, the DeWine-Brown race could be considered a virtual dead heat.

In the governor’s race, Strickland was the choice of 50 percent of those polled, while Blackwell took 38 percent. Five percent was divided between independent candidates Bill Peirce and Bob Fitrakis, while seven percent were undecided.

Strickland had the support of 81 percent of Democrats interviewed, while Blackwell had support from 68 percent of Republicans. One of every five Republicans polled said they would vote for Strickland. Strickland also had a large lead among independents – 55 percent to Blackwell’s 30 percent.

The Ohio Poll conducted phone interviews with a random sample of 671 likely voters from Sept. 7 through Sept. 17. No interviews were conducted on Sept. 11, the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.