Is Ohio A Divided State?
Jayson at PoliPundit does not think so as he states in a well written piece that is worth reading. He points to several examples of evidence of a GOP upsurgance - (a) a referendum on whether to send drug offenders to jail or to instead rehabilitate them that went strongly towards the latter (b) A strongly rejected anti-hunting measure (c) reknewing a partial ban on sales taxes by 32 percentage points.

As somebody born and raised in Ohio, I do agree that the state is not liberal. Such a title is reserved for my current Bay Area law school alma matter. However, not being liberal does not mean that Ohio is not Democrat. Now one could argue that the portion of the population that votes democrat should reconsider and support the republicans as that party obstensibly is more in tune with their prefernces - such an argument is often made about the African American population. However, an argument that because the state agrees more with Bush it will vote for him both ignores other factors (the emotional, indentification element of voting) and the fact that the polls say differently.