PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Can Ohio GOP put rift on hold to help Bush?

The infighting will hurt if it gets a lot of press attention, said one analyst.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Ohio Republicans, invigorated after spending a week together at their party's national convention, say they're returning home unified and focused on re-electing President Bush.
But some question whether voters will buy that from the state GOP, which has been publicly fighting and entangled in high-profile anonymous allegations of improper fund raising and reports of document thefts. Several of the highest ranking Republicans also have started campaigning against each other for 2006 positions, including governor.
The stakes are high: Polls show Bush and Democrat John Kerry are virtually tied in the state that both sides consider must-win. No Republican has won the presidency without Ohio, and only two Democrats have done it since 1900 -- Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944 and John F. Kennedy in 1960.
Struggles
"Ohio is considered the cream of this election," said Tom Wiseman, a political analyst at Bowling Green State University. "The electoral votes are so important."
Mending fences while being tasked by Bush's top campaign officials to ensure the Republican incumbent wins Ohio's 20 electoral votes could prove too much as the squabbling Republicans also campaign against each other, Wiseman said.
"The Republican Party has been having its tests and has been having some minor struggles," he said. "I think they have their work cut out for them and the pressure's on for unity, to deliver the state for the president."
All week long in New York, Ohio GOP chairman Bob Bennett confronted talk of a party rift with repeated vows such as, "We all share the unified commitment in re-electing our great president."
Ohio Gov. Bob Taft, a Republican with lukewarm approval who runs the president's state campaign, also spent much of the week defending his state party. "We're going to work together," he said Monday.
"It is really critical for us to work together in Ohio to deliver the state of Ohio for President Bush," Lt. Gov. Jennette Bradley told delegates Thursday.
The Ohioans might have felt the need to constantly remind their colleagues that they were up to the job. Republicans -- from members of Bush's inner circle to local poll workers from other states -- called on Ohio to deliver for the president at every breakfast, every social gathering and every caucus meeting.
"Everyone, I think, is saying around the nation: Ohio, Ohio, Ohio," said Gerald Parsky, chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign in California.
Rove's remarks
Bush's chief strategist, Karl Rove, visited with the Ohio delegation Monday, telling them he needed them to work as hard as ever before to register voters and persuade people to vote for the president.
"The election is so close and the race is so competitive and the need is so great," he told Ohio reporters Thursday. He predicted the Republican rift and Taft's low approval won't hurt Bush.
"People make up their minds on the basis of the presidential candidate," Rove said. Taft "is not on the ballot. President Bush is on the ballot."
The Republicans managed to present a united image in New York, though there was plenty of spotlight on all three statewide officeholders who want to be governor in two years -- Attorney General Jim Petro, Auditor Betty Montgomery and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell.
Each was highlighted at breakfasts with some of the national party's biggest stars, including Vice President Dick Cheney. And all of them spent plenty of time talking to delegates, shaking hands and building a reputation among Republicans from other states.
"This wasn't an opportunity for me to introduce myself to these people," Blackwell said of his Wednesday speech to delegates from Ohio, California and Tennessee. "It was a chance to make it clear in their collective and individual minds that I am their superior standard-bearer."
One scenario
Nancy Martorano, assistant professor of political science at the University of Dayton, said the party infighting will hurt Bush if it gets a lot of press attention. "That may turn off some of those undecided voters," she said.
On the last day of the convention at the delegation's last meeting, Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot again reminded them that "Ohio is going to be absolutely critical."
"Leave inspired. Leave with pride," he said. "As the president says, 'We cannot tire."'
The nation's Republicans are hoping member's of Ohio's GOP don't tire of their convention unity. At least not until after Election Day.