Ohioans will look past party labels, Romney predicts

The GOP presidential
hopeful said the only way to win the White House is with a coalition.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio voters who overwhelmingly replaced Republicans with Democrats in last year’s statewide elections will look past party labels toward security and economic issues in the 2008 presidential election, Republican Mitt Romney said Wednesday.

Romney, in a brief stop with reporters while en route to a fundraiser, said there are more important issues than politics at stake in next year’s contest. Whoever the nominee is must have strong security and economic credentials, he said.

“I think people are going to forget the R’s and the D’s. They’re going to look at the nominees and ask who can keep our country safe and prosperous,” Romney said.

Ohio Democrats captured four of five statewide races in 2006, including a return to the governor’s office for the first time in 16 years.

Romney said the Republican presidential nominee must appeal to all three conservative groups: economic, foreign policy and social.

“I believe the only way to win the White House is with a coalition like Ronald Reagan had,” Romney said.

Romney was scheduled to visit suburban Dublin for a fundraiser later Wednesday. He expected about 125 people to pay $1,000 or the maximum $2,300 each to visit with the candidate.

The former Massachusetts governor raised $408,015 in Ohio during the third quarter, according to the Federal Elections Commission. That’s more than any other GOP or Democratic candidate raised in the state. Romney raised $9.8 million nationally during the quarter, trailing Rudy Giuliani’s $11.5 million. Overall, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton led all candidates nationally, raising $27.3 million.

The polls, however, tell a different story. In the latest Quinnipiac University poll of likely Republican voters in Ohio, Romney drew 8 percent support, while Giuliani led all Republicans with 27 percent. The numbers for both candidates were mostly unchanged from July.

No Republican has been elected president without winning Ohio, and just two Democrats have done so since 1900. The state was pivotal in 2004, giving President Bush the electoral votes he needed to win the election. Ohio figures less prominently in the nomination process. Thirty-six states have at least tentatively scheduled primaries or party caucuses elections before Ohio’s primary on March 4.

Romney’s fund-raising team is led by members of billionaire financier Carl Lindner’s family.