Mid-Morning Links

–>Gov. Strickland’s approval rating plummets but voters love gambling in new poll

Gov. Ted Strickland’s approval rating has plummeted over the past two months, with 46 percent of the state’s voters giving him a thumbs up compared to 57 percent in early May, according to a poll released today by Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

Pollsters found that 42 percent of the state’s voters disapprove of the governor’s performance, compared to 29 percent in May.

–> Quinnipiac- Strickland in Serious Trouble

Ted Strickland is in trouble, which is why the Ohio Democrat Party has already started campaigning against Kasich in such a negative way that you might think it was already October 2010.

–> Spending taxpayer dollars with reckless abandon does not create more jobs

John Boehner represents Ohio’s 8th Congressional District and also serves as the Republican Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Last Friday, in an hour-long speech on the House floor prior to a vote on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s “cap-and-trade” national energy tax, I used my privileges as minority leader to outline just how dangerous this bureaucratic nightmare would be for our economy. The American people needed to hear the truth. This bill will raise their taxes and punish hardworking, middle-class families with higher gasoline, electricity and food costs. And it is a job-killer that will send American jobs overseas to China and India — particularly bad news for states like Ohio, which depends on three industries that will be devastated by this legislation: agriculture, coal and manufacturing.

–> Casino complication casts more doubts on plan to balance budget

As Senate Republicans pressed Strickland’s budget and lottery officials for details about the slots plan, House Democrats warned that $1 billion more in punitive cuts would have to occur without the slots.

Amid the rhetoric was a bombshell tucked in a draft of the slots legislation: If Ohio voters approve a separate casino gambling issue in November, the state would have to return to racetrack owners any part of the $65 million that each paid toward licenses if the owners want their money back.

That could eliminate up to $455 million of the $933 million the state expects to raise from the racetrack-slots plan during the next two years to help fill a $3.2 billion budget shortfall.