Welcome to the first installment of Swing Easy, Columbus Underground’s ongoing series about the 2016 senate and presidential elections as experienced by America’s most important swing state. As electioneering heats up in the Buckeye State, we’ll bring you all the details and oddities of an Ohio campaign, starting with a ninja candidate, a forgotten senator and a governor with serious considerations…
Security camera confirms Hillary Clinton ordered Chipotle in Maumee
No one in American politics has been scrutinized more than Hillary Clinton. As a first lady, a US senator, a presidential candidate, a secretary of state and now again as a presidential candidate, one would imagine the woman’s life and career has been examined from every possible angle. But one would be wrong.
While travelling to Iowa, Clinton stopped at a Chipotle in Maumee, just outside of Toledo, and was so discrete that her visit went unnoticed by the restaurant’s customers and staff until The New York Times launched a Pulitzer-worthy investigation. After talking to NYT reporters, the manager of the Chipotle located security camera images of the former State Secretary ordering what WTVG described as a “chicken bowl with guacamole.”
The images went viral, because the Internet exists, and this is Hillary Clinton we’re talking about. Republicans everywhere must’ve been frustrated that these few grainy images did not reveal what Clinton knew about Benghazi and when she knew it, only that Clinton likes her guacamole with way too much cilantro.
Seriously Chipotle, it’s too much cilantro.
Who is this Rob Portman guy?
Hillary Clinton isn’t the only national politician Ohioans apparently can’t pick out of a crowd. As WOSU’s Columbus on the Record discussed this week, a Quinnipiac poll has revealed that a startling 44 percent of Ohioans don’t know enough about U.S. Senator Rob Portman to have an opinion on his positions or record. Numbers like that could make things difficult for Portman during his 2016 re-election campaign, where he faces former Governor Ted Strickland. Strickland, newly endorsed by the Ohio Democratic Party, has safer numbers according to Quinnipiac; only 29 percent of Ohioans can’t seem to remember anything about the last governor.
So what gives? On the Record’s panel speculated Portman’s weak name recognition may have something to do with the fact that he’s not exactly a hyper-partisan, rabble-rousing senate Republican. But such is the plight of senators; they simply don’t have the list of hard, executive accomplishments that governors carry around in their pockets. This causes problems whenever a senator faces a governor (between 1960 and 2008, for example, not a single sitting senator was elected president).
With Portman at such a natural disadvantage, his campaign had better kick things into gear and get his name out there, or else instead of “Vote for Rob Portman” the signs will say “Have You Heard of Rob Portman?”
Speaking of Governors vs. Senators…
…John Kasich is still teasing a presidential run. This week in Detroit, the Governor moved himself from the “maybe” box into the “seriously considering” category, according to the Dispatch (in the future, Facebook will have a “Presidential Campaign Status” for politicians, right below the relationship status).
It remains to be seen whether Kasich has the right amount of name recognition outside the Midwest, and whether Republican voters in other regions will like him when they meet him. But the man has to like his chances at the moment. He’s the governor of the swingiest of swing states, and so far his potential competition in the GOP primary is Marco Rubio, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz; all senators (see senators v. governors, above) and not one in office for more than four years.
That’s what they call a weak field.
For ongoing national/state political discussion, CLICK HERE to visit our Messageboard.