Presidential hopefuls to do battle for Ohio

Ohio offers 88 Republican delegates and 161
Democratic delegates.

COLUMBUS (AP) — Democratic rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama dispatched aides to Ohio on Wednesday, signaling neither would concede the state’s March 4 primary. Republicans John McCain and Mitt Romney both held back as their party’s nominating contest remained a jumble.

Neither party picked presidential nominees on Tuesday, when more than 20 states went to the polls from California to Massachusetts. Ohio’s contest now becomes a central target as the campaigns look to end what could be a prolonged fight.

“The Democrats have a proportional system that keeps the contest going with two candidates who have significant support. ... This is going to be a long contest,” Mark Penn, Clinton’s chief strategist, said Wednesday.

Penn said the New York senator would focus on March 4 primaries — Ohio, Texas, Rhode Island and Vermont — because “more delegates will be decided when they vote than in the previous three weeks.” Also, the contests leading up to March 4 favor Obama.

In a sign Obama deemed the state central to his strategy, the Illinois senator sent his Iowa chief, Paul Tewes, to take charge of Ohio. Obama staged an upset defeat of Clinton in Iowa, giving him the first win in the nominating calendar.

The Republicans all pledged to go forward with an eye on delegate-rich Ohio but delayed sending paid staff here. McCain has a corps of elected officials backing him. Romney’s vast personal wealth could help him buy television airtime, an important part of any campaign’s strategy in Ohio, where voters rely on TV more than in-person efforts. Huckabee, trailing in fundraising, struggled to stay afloat with many aides working without pay.

“It’s probably going to be fought on TV,” said Mark Munroe, the vice chairman of the Mahoning County Republican Party in rust-belt northeast Ohio. “No one ever said it was inexpensive to run for president.”

Romney, who won an estimated 173 delegates on Tuesday, vowed to stay in the race. McCain, who won 455 and retained his front-runner status, left his scrappy staff split between New Hampshire and Virginia. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and Baptist pastor, won 147 from his southern victories but has a shell of a national staff.

Romney trails with 294 pledged delegates, to McCain’s 707. Both fell short of the 1,191 needed to be the nominee.

“Has everybody rallied around John McCain at this point? No. But I suspect that’s going to happen. But it’s going to take some time,” said Munroe, who supported Rudy Giuliani’s bid until the former New York mayor lost Florida and backed McCain. “Clearly, McCain has got the momentum.”

Ohio has 88 Republican delegates in play. The state offers 161 delegates to Democratic candidates, who need 2,025 to secure the nomination.

Clinton won 542 delegates on Tuesday, and Obama, 546.

Both parties’ hopefuls have distinct challenges facing them in Ohio. An unpopular war is a drag on Republicans, while Democrats’ spending proposals cause pause. The tide of anti-Republican sentiment that gave the governor’s office to Democrat Ted Strickland in 2006 seemed to calm but didn’t evaporate.

“The economy is a huge issue, but a huge visceral issue is the war,” central Ohio’s Delaware County Democratic Party Chairman Ed Helvey said. “I think with both parties, that resonates. It feeds into the economy because we’re pulling billions a month into Iraq, and what good is it doing us?”

Clinton supporters seized on the frustration with the economy, turning the blame to President Bush and Republicans on Wednesday — and not Obama.

“Ohio is a state that has suffered greatly under the Bush administration, under its policies, under taxes, under health care, the whole war in Iraq,” U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones told reporters in a conference call.

The last Ohio Poll, sponsored by the University of Cincinnati, found a large majority of Ohio voters rated the state’s economic conditions as fair or poor. Romney won Michigan’s primary, in part, because he focused on the region’s lagging economy. Aides say a similar approach could benefit the Massachusetts governor now that he is trying to play delegate catch-up.

Republicans’ history of mobilizing Ohio’s voters, however, can’t be ignored; George W. Bush won the state’s general elections in 2000 and 2004 on his way to the White House.