The Columbus Dispatch released their final round-up of state races in Ohio yesterday, and the Democrats are poised to sweep all state offices. The Republicans have a series of self-inflicted wounds here in the buckeye state, from a convicted Governor to Tom Noe's coingate scandal. Add to that the corruption of Bob Ney, and Ohioans are ready for a change.

Not only is this good for the state, but we are also seeing more House races close up. Oh-1, a district that fell victim to heavy gerrymandering to protect Republican incumbent Steve Chabot (for proof of that, come to my street where you go from one house to the next and change between Boehner and Chabot), and was considered a Republican safe seat, is now leaning more towards John Cranley, the Democratic challenger. That isn't the only seat though. We also have these:

- OH-18: Democrat Zack Space has a comfortable 9 point lead over Republican Joy Padgett. This is the race for convicted Bob Ney's seat.
- OH-15: Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy is now up to a 12 point lead over incumbent Republican Deborah Pryce.
- OH-2: The Victoria Wulsin(D)/Jean Schmidt(R) race is in a statistical dead heat. There hasn't been any polls conducted since Schmidt saying she wanted to explore the option of storing nuclear waste in her district, so the impact of that little comment is not yet known.

This means that four of the 15 seats the Democrats need to win could come from Ohio.

Even locally we are seeing races close up even more. Here in Butler County, Ohio we have a race for county auditor, in which the Democratic challenger Jack Zettler is looking more like he could take the job from Republican incumbent Kay Rogers. Rogers has held on to the job for 10 years and the seat has been traditionally Republican.

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The Stakeholder:

Can Jean Schmidt even tie her shoes without lying, cheating or stealing?

From the Wulsin campaign:

SCHMIDT PLAGIARIZES POLICY POSITIONS

This Week's Op-Ed Identical to Press Release by Deborah Pryce

Cincinnati, Ohio - Jean Schmidt added another blatant deception to her long list of publicly-exposed lies this week when she published an op-ed about Medicare Part D in the Community Press and Recorder that is almost identical to a press release issued by Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (R-Columbus) on July 10 of this year. She also published the op-ed on August 30 in the Piketon News Watchman and in the Adams County People's Defender.

"If we can't trust Jean Schmidt to give us her own opinions on basic political questions, then we can't trust her to represent us in Congress," said Dr. Victoria Wulsin. "This blatant act of plagiarism isn't just embarrassing, it's downright insulting to the voters in this district. Jean Schmidt has absolutely nothing original to say. She can only regurgitate what the Republican Party tells her to say."

Read on...

(h/t E and Raw Story)