After spending the last six months doing nothing but fundraising, John Kasich’s campaign still has a sizeable disadvantage to Ted Strickland’s campaign.

In response to Kasich-Taylor announcing that they were reporting they have $4 million on hand, Strickland-Brown Communication Director Lis Smith issued the following statement:

“While we are still compiling our fundraising report, Governor Strickland will have more cash on hand than any incumbent Governor in Ohio history at this point in the campaign. Given Congressman Kasich?s 20 years in Washington,?brief presidential campaign, and 7 years on Wall Street, we?re frankly surprised that he didn?t raise more.?

So what does that mean?? Well, according to the Secretary of State’s office, if Ms. Smith’s statement is true, that means that Governor Strickland’s campaign has MORE THAN $5.7 MILLION on hand.

I don’t have any sources, but I’ve got to believe that it’s around $6 million.

Let’s remember that unlike Kasich, Governor Strickland has a day job, and the reporting period constituted almost the entire budget debate.? Yet, Ted Strickland is still breaking fundraising records.? Kasich pulled out Sean Hannity and Glenn Beck.? He went all over the nation raising every penny he could just so he could talk about his record-breaking fundraising haul… and he’s still getting beat.

Remember, even Kasich always believed that his Wall Street connections would keep him well-funded in any race:

“In 2008, Mr. Kasich thinks he will be tanned, rested and ready, and having done his time on Wall Street-having finally rubbed up close against all those big-money guys-he just might be able to scrape together enough cash to make a meaningful run at it. “If I can fix my fund-raising problems, I will run again,” he says.”

Of course, in that same interview, Kasich also said:

“I think President Bush is doing a fine job.”

At this point in 2005, Ted Strickland only had a $700k cash-on-hand advantage to Ken Blackwell. Wow, indeed, Keeling.