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Senate Bill 5 officially makes Ohio ballot as Kasich’s numbers fall

It’s official: the rights-stripping, anti-working families, extreme Senate Bill 5 will be put before Ohio voters for a Citizen Veto in November:

Ohio voters will have the chance this November to decide whether the state’s contentious new collective bargaining law should be repealed.

The state’s elections chief said Thursday that opponents had gathered enough valid signatures to put the question before voters. The measure is now suspended from taking effect until voters have their say.

Secretary of State John Husted certified 915,456 valid signatures, out of the 231,147 that were needed. Not only that, but these signatures came from every corner of the state:

As part of the total number of signatures needed to place the measure on the ballot, petitioners also needed to collect signatures from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, and within each of those counties, to collect enough signatures equal to three percent of the total vote cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, 2010. Senate Bill 5 petitioners met this requirement in all 88 counties.

Meanwhile, Governor John Kasich is pulling ahead in the contest to be the nation’s least popular statewide executive. A new poll from Quinnipiac shows that 50 percent of Ohioans disapprove of Kasich’s performance has governor, while a measly 35 percent approve. This is down from a 49-38 spread in May 2011, and it isn’t just traditional Democrats who are turning against him:

Kasich’s job performance gets a 66 – 19 percent approval from Republicans, but disapproval is 76 – 12 percent among Democrats and 48 – 34 percent among independent voters. The depth of his problem is evidenced by his split 43 – 42 percent rating among white evangelical Christians, typically a very pro-Republican group.

As for his signature legislative achievement, voters oppose Senate Bill 5 56 percent to 32 percent. That sentiment showed up very clearly when We Are Ohio announced that they had gathered 1.3 million signatures to repeal SB 5 – that’s roughly six times the margin Kasich won by in the 2010 election.

Purely based on the numbers, things are looking up for Ohio working families, but not so good for Kasich and his corporate, radical allies.