As Ohio goes...

For those of us who live in a battleground state like Ohio, at this point in the election, rarely a week goes by that a presidential or vice presidential candidate isn’t traveling somewhere in the Buckeye State campaigning for the support of Ohioans. In fact, Romney just made his 20th visit to Ohio on Friday, September 14. The sheer number of visits by the candidates alone shows how important winning Ohio is to both candidates.
 
And the candidates are courting Ohioans for good reason. The state’s 18 electoral votes go to the victor and only one president has been elected without winning Ohio since 1944 and that was John F. Kennedy in 1960.

As everyone knows, Ohio is a swing state that can shift in favor of a candidate from either party. There was a less than two percent average margin separating winning and losing candidates in the past three elections and as in years past, this presidential election is a close one and up for grabs in Ohio.
 
The voters both campaigns are after in Ohio are the undecided voters and while the undecideds make up a very small part of the electorate; they will make or break this race. Ohio has been a leader in grassroots campaigning since the 2000 presidential race, and today the organizational efforts have only grown.  An aggressive micro-targeting grass roots effort by the Romney team has been ongoing in Ohio since the summer to identify these key voters and communicate their message.
 
The Romney campaign expects to hit 3.5 million voter contacts the weekend of September 21, 2012 and there have been five times more calls and 28 times more doors knocked on at this point in 2012, than this same time in 2008.   
 
The situation on the ground today in Ohio, is the same as it is in many other states. Since Obama took office, Ohio has lost more than 66,000 jobs, Ohio’s median income has fallen nearly $3,000, foreclosures are up, and gas prices have almost doubled. Unemployment in Ohio currently stands at 7.2 percent, so it is no surprise job creation and turning around the economy are the most important issues for voters.
 
President Obama's economic policies have made things worse and now all he has to offer is blame and divisiveness. The real question for voters of both Ohio and the rest of America is do they want four more years of the same leadership and policies with the same dismal outcomes, or are they willing to change leadership and improve America's competitiveness, which will result in a stronger economy. If Governor Romney continues to focus his campaign on the economy and his 5-point plan, I believe he will win Ohio and become the 45th president of the United States.

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