One last push in the Valley

The son of a former president visited the Valley.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
VINDICATOR POLITICS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The focus of local political parties today is to make sure those who support President Bush or U.S. Sen. John Kerry, his Democratic challenger, take the next step: to vote for their candidate.
Volunteers at local Republican and Democratic headquarters are working round-the-clock calling core supporters of their presidential candidate, said Mahoning Democratic Chairwoman Lisa Antonini, and Mahoning Republican Vice Chairman Mark Munroe, who is also chairman of the county's Bush-Cheney campaign committee.
"We're calling the party faithful," Antonini said. "That's what we did this weekend," Monday and today. From Friday to Monday, the party called 50,000 people in Mahoning County, she said.
Mahoning Republicans are also working the phones, Munroe said. Almost 30,000 people were called between Friday and Monday, he said.
Like Democrats, local Republicans are focusing their last-minute phone calls on those who plan to vote for President Bush.
"They told us previously they plan to vote for the president so we're calling them to remind them to get to the polls and vote," Munroe said.
If rides to the polls are needed, party officials say, they will be provided.
Both parties are still going door to door with campaign literature trying to persuade registered voters to support their candidates, but the focus is much less on that now, Antonini and Munroe said.
Challengers barred
Court decisions that bar hundreds of Democratic and Republican challengers from being inside polling places mean a change of plans for local party officials. Both plan to have the people who were to serve as challengers work the telephones calling supporters or outside the poll sites handing out campaign literature.
Republicans wanted the challengers inside the polling areas to make sure only eligible voters were permitted to cast ballots. Democrats say they had challengers in the polling areas to watch the Republican challengers.
"The only thing we wanted was for every eligible Ohioan to go to the polls and vote without any harassment, and to be allowed to vote and have it be counted," said U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th.
Dead heat in polls
Two polls released Monday -- conducted by the Ohio Poll and Strategic Visions -- show the presidential race in Ohio is a statistical dead heat. Bush, Kerry and their surrogates have visited Ohio, a key battleground state, dozens of times.
Just this weekend in the Mahoning Valley, Kerry held a rally in Warren, and several surrogates -- including two Bush Cabinet members, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, singer Jon Bon Jovi, and numerous Emmy and Oscar winners -- visited the area.
Oscar winner Timothy Hutton stayed in the Valley today to help Kerry. Michael Reagan, a national radio talk show host and son of the late President Reagan, visited several Valley locations Monday.
Reagan, a supporter of the president, told an audience of about 200 people at Mahoning GOP headquarters in Boardman that the economy is improving under Bush and that the war on terrorism is a success because of his strong leadership.
Reagan took shots at his brother, Ron Reagan, a Kerry supporter, as well as his home state of California, calling it "Weirdo Country."
Response to terrorists
During a brief interview with The Vindicator, Reagan was asked if the president handled the 9/11 terrorist attacks the way his father would have, had they occurred while he was in office.
"It wouldn't have happened on my father's watch," he said. "The terrorists know if they did it under Ronald Reagan's watch, they would be living in a parking lot. They didn't know about George Bush and they tested him. Now, Bush is kicking their butts."
Reagan also said the attacks had more to do with the weak anti-terrorist policies of President Clinton than they had to do with the Bush administration.
In response, Brendon Cull, spokesman for the Ohio Democratic Coordinated Campaign, said: "Michael Reagan's comments may be colorful, but they're not a true indicator of the war on terrorism right now. John Kerry will fight a stronger war on terror than George Bush."
Asking for patience
Election officials say they are prepared for today's election, and ask that people be patient in line because of the huge increases in registrations this year that will translate into more people voting.
Mahoning election board employees began opening absentee ballots Saturday so they can start counting them today, said Munroe, who is also the county election board's chairman. There are more than 16,000 absentee ballots to count in Mahoning County, he said.
"We've got so many absentee ballots that we had to open them Saturday, or else it would take days to open and count them," Munroe said.
skolnick@vindy.com