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Columbus
-- Ohio's capital, biggest city and home to Ohio State University
-- is a competitive region that Obama won comfortably in 2008 but George W. Bush narrowly carried four years earlier. Both campaigns will fight hard for its swing voters. Strategists say Romney hopes to run up big margins in rural areas and the Cincinnati suburbs. Obama's campaign will need big turnouts from Cleveland's black and liberal voters, and it hopes union households in the struggling coal and steel regions won't abandon Democrats. Ohio Democrats say they will force Romney to explain his 2008-2009 opposition to a federal bailout of the fast-falling U.S. auto industry, which Obama now calls a huge success. The revitalized car industry has been crucial to Ohio's steady job growth, and Romney's complex explanation of his stance on the 2009 bankruptcy restructuring is unconvincing, said former Gov. Ted Strickland, whom Kasich defeated in 2010. "I'm very impressed with the organization the Obama folks are putting in place," Strickland said. "It's going to be a very close race, but I think the president has a very good chance of carrying Ohio again." If so, Obama must inspire demoralized Democrats such as Tony Soto of Lorain, a retired Ford auto worker who ate lunch recently at the Three Star Restaurant on hard-pressed 28th Street. Economically diversified cities such as Columbus are thriving these days, but old industrial towns like Lorain feel overlooked. "The economy is so bad here, people just up and leave," said Soto, 56, looking across the road at huge, shuttered steel plants. He said he would like to join his son in Arizona, but he can't sell his house in Lorain. Soto said he probably will vote for Obama, but he showed no enthusiasm. "No matter who gets in, it's all promises," he said, dabbing an onion ring in brown gravy. "A lot of people say this is going to be a ghost town pretty soon. I believe it." Ritenauer, Loran's 27-year-old mayor, is battling that view. He says he wishes he had the money to tear down 1,100 abandoned buildings in this city of 64,000, most of them houses beyond repair. He also is looking for ways to relocate the sewage treatment plant and high-power lines that mar the view of the town marina, on Lake Erie. As for Democratic leaders trying to bounce back from their 2010 disaster, the mayor makes no bold predictions. "They're going to put on an impressive campaign, as they always do," Ritenauer said. "And we'll see where it goes."
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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