Ohio Public Radio
Name Game and Blame Game Starting Already in 2014 Gubernatorial Race
By Jo Ingles 

Name calling has already begun in the race for Ohio Governor but it’s not what you think. The Ohio Republican Party has requested documents that Democratic Gubernatorial candidate and Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald has not signed because his name was not spelled correctly. And the Ohio Democratic Party is firing back with a similar request of its own. 

Back in 2011, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald put out a staff memo saying he would no longer sign legal documents in which his name was misspelled with a lower case rather than a capital “G”.  Matt Henderson with the Ohio Republican Party wants copies of all records for which FitzGerald’s name was misspelled. 

"Ohioans deserve to know if Ed’s refusal to sign important state and federal documents interfered with disaster relief aid, critical public safety measures or any other issues," says Henderson. 

Jerid Kurtz with the Ohio Democratic Party says this is a case of the Republican Party just playing political games. 

"In response to the rather farcical request that the Republican Party submitted, we have submitted a request, taking their language nearly identically asking for any documentation that Governor Kasich may have signed that misspelled his name that might be considered not legally sound or enforceable," says Kurtz. 

The flap over misspelled names comes less than 24 hours after FitzGerald, a Democrat, announced he will run against Republican Governor John Kasich next fall. 

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