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0000017a-3b40-d913-abfe-bf44a4f90000Howard Wilkinson joined the WVXU news team as the politics reporter and columnist in April 2012 , after 30 years of covering local, state and national politics for The Cincinnati Enquirer. On this page, you will find his weekly column, Politically Speaking; the Monday morning political chats with News Director Maryanne Zeleznik and other news coverage by Wilkinson. A native of Dayton, Ohio, Wilkinson has covered every Ohio gubernatorial race since 1974, as well as 16 presidential nominating conventions. Along with politics, Wilkinson also covered the 2001 Cincinnati race riots, the Lucasville prison riot in 1993, the Air Canada plane crash at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport in 1983, and the 1997 Ohio River flooding. And, given his passion for baseball, you might even find some stories about the Cincinnati Reds here from time to time.

Cincy a stop on FitzGerald's campaign kick-off tour

Campaign website

Democrat Ed FitzGerald, the Cuyahoga County executive, is expected to formally announce his candidacy for Ohio governor Wednesday at stops in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati.

The Cincinnati event takes place at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Laborers' Local Union Hall at 3457 Montgomery Rd. in Evanston. RSVPs for all three events can be made here.

FitzGerald, 44, was elected Cuyahoga County's first county executive in 2010 after voters there decided to get rid of the county commission system in the wake of a widespread scandal that landed one county commissioner in federal prison.

He is the only Democrat so far actively campaigning to unseat Republican incumbent John Kasich next year.

A former FBI agent and mayor of the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, FitzGerald is little known outside of northeast Ohio. A Quinnipiac University poll showed that 76 percent of those polled did not know enough about FitzGerald to have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of him.

The same poll showed FitzGerald trailing Kasich in a head-to-head match-up by nine percentage points - 37 percent to 46 percent.

Howard Wilkinson is in his 50th year of covering politics on the local, state and national levels.