The race for Ohio governor, already one of the most closely watched in the country, remains neck and neck. A new Baldwin Wallace Community Research Institute poll released today shows Republican Mike DeWine leading Democrat Richard Cordray by three points 42.2 percent to 39.2 percent. DeWine's lead was 4.8 percentin CRI's last poll released Sept. 18.
In the race for U.S. Senate Democrat Sherrod Brown holds a 16.5 point lead over Rep. Jim Renacci in his bid for a third term, little change over the previous poll's lead of 17.4 percent.
The poll also contained results for the first time looking at the down ballot row office races, all of which held by term-limited Republicans that are now up for grabs this November. Much like the race for governor, all four races at this stage remain a coin toss with the race for Ohio Secretary of State coming in as a dead tie with Republican Frank LaRose and Democrat Kathleen Clyde each showing support from 32.6 percent of respondents with an almost equal amount of 27.6% undecided.
In the race for Ohio Attorney General, current Auditor Dave Yost leads former U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach 38.1 to 33.7 percent with 28.2 percent still undecided.
In the race to fill the auditor post, Yost is vacating after two terms Democrat Zack Space leads Republican Keith Faber 32.3 to 31.3 percent with 30 percent unsure.
And in the race for the treasurer post held for the last two terms by Josh Mandel, Democrat Rob Richardson leads Republican Richard Sprague 33.2 to 31.1 percent with 29 percent undecided.
The poll also asked Ohio voters what they thought about Issue 1, the Drug and Criminal Justice Policies Initiative that would reclassify certain drug offenses as misdemeanors. 47.9 percent of those polled support the amendment, 30.5 percent oppose.
