Kelly says the state party will encourage Obama to campaign all over the state, because that is how you win Ohio. “Kerry focused on only 16 counties out of our 88,” he explains. “He won 16 and lost 72. Two years later, Strickland focused on all 88 counties. He won 72 and lost 16.”
In place to roll out an Obama barnstorm is a robust, election-winning state party infrastructure: It has raised more than $6 million (compared to $1.6 million raised by this time in 2004), recruited more than 5,000 volunteers to canvass voters and dedicated a fund to polling and micro-targeting, according to Kelly. And its own staff has increased from 10 paid staffers to 62.
“We are ready to go,” Kelly proclaims.
Yet all of this organizing, fundraising and party-building is not without its problems -- most notably, the residual effects of a primary that had Ohioans going strongly for Hillary Clinton.
Even in a town called Unity, it’s tough to find a Democrat crossing over from Clinton to Obama.
Denny Beight cannot picture himself pulling the lever for Obama in November, saying, “I have deep concerns.”
Beight, 64, a registered Democrat who owns four Vittle Village gas stations and convenience stores, voted for Clinton in the primaries. “I worry about the underlying problems of the ‘Great Society’ culture that Obama wants to govern from,” he says. “That way of governing created a movement which became a sub-society of entitlement,” something he says he sees daily with the food-stamp program in his stores.
“I have a lot more faith in McCain’s ability to make decisions that are important to our country,” he adds. “I know he is criticized by Republicans for making relationships with the Democrats. For me, that is a plus.”
Democrats who know Ohio admit to challenges ahead but still believe Obama can overcome them.
Recently, much ado was made about Gov. Strickland’s comments to a New York Times editorial board. “It’s fine to tell people about hope and change,” he told the newspaper, “but you have to have plenty of concrete, pragmatic ideas that bring hope and change to life.”
Strickland knows his state well. And while he predicted to the Trib that “Ohio will go Democratic in November,” the attitudes of the Buckeye State’s Denny Beights cannot be resting easily on the minds of Democrats who want to win here.