* Former President Bill Clinton is coming to Ohio to campaign for Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy and Gov. Ted Strickland (Dispatch). President Clinton is still extremely popular in Ohio.
* Tea party favorite, Steve Stivers, is getting a lot of attention, but it isn't all good. Many women are upset about Stivers, his attacks and "red baiting" of Mary Jo Kilroy. Stivers, who is against women's reproductive freedom (depending on the way the wind blows), has made some rude and unkind remarks about women and girls (see Buckeye State Blog).
* Republican Mike DeWine, candidate for Ohio Attorney General, has run an extremely negative campaign. Many voters still hold a grudge against Mike DeWine's overwhelming support of the policies of the Bush administration. Republicans outside the state have given up on Mike DeWine's campaign. Some Republicans inside Ohio still believe that Mike DeWine only got the initial support from the party because of his cousin, Kevin DeWine, head of the Ohio GOP. Mike DeWine's opposition, Democrat Richard Cordray, is extremely qualified and very popular in the state.
Financial problems and accusations have followed Michael Steele's chairmanship of the RNC. It has been difficult for Republican candidates to get money from Steele.
Here is what Forbes had to say about the Republicans in Ohio:
...In Ohio, where the governor's race is in doubt and Republicans are challenging some Democratic House members, party chairman Kevin DeWine recently wrote Steele that the $566,900 the RNC had transferred to date "simply pales in comparison" with 2004, 2006 and 2008.
DeWine begged Steele on Oct. 11 for the full amount of $1 million-plus and then another "emergency appeal" of a million on top of that. The RNC this past week sent $284,400 to Ohio as part of a round of $2.8 million to states....