Concentration of Competitive Races Puts Ohio at Center of Midter
2006-11-02
Source: New York Times
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rss feedMary Jo Kilroy is an awkward, stumbling speaker. John Cranley is a baby-faced 32-year-old whose campaign biography still highlights his election as student body president in college. Dr. Victoria Wulsin has never held elected office.
But, reflecting the political drift of this bellwether state a week before the midterm elections, all three of these Democrats are in competitive races to unseat once-safe Republican members of Congress. With polls showing Democrats running well ahead in Ohio races for senator and governor, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has recently begun spending money to help Dr. Wulsin unseat her opponent, Representative Jean Schmidt, adding Ms. Schmidt to its list of three other Republican targets in the state.
Republicans, meanwhile, are scaling back their support for State Senator Joy Padgett in her fight against Zack Space, a Democrat who is the city attorney in Dover, for the Congressional seat being vacated by Representative Bob Ney, a Republican who pleaded guilty to corruption charges.
That puts four Republican seats in play. Strategists for both sides say Mr. Ney's seat is the Democrats' best chance while Ms. Schmidt is the least vulnerable of the four Republicans.
Ohio has been a central battleground of the midterm elections because of the unusual concentration of competitive races. The Senate seat, now held by Senator Mike DeWine, is one of a half-dozen or so that will determine control of the chamber. The 4 House seats are among about 40 that will decide control of that body. And winning the governorship of Ohio can give a party a big assist in carrying the state in a presidential election.
Discontent with the war in Iraq, the limping regional economy and a corruption scandal in the Republican-controlled statehouse tilted the table in favor of the Democrats from the start of the campaign. But in the final days before the election, Republicans are fighting hard to hold on.
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