Ohio Decisive State for Democratic Race

[Freddie Stubbs]

By RON FOURNIER
ASSOCIATED PRESS

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (AP) -

Florida is so passe. This year's must-have state is Ohio.

"If it was all about Florida in 2000, it's Ohio, Ohio, Ohio in 2004," said state Rep. Sylvester Patton, looking out the window of his downtown office building at Youngstown's Historical Center of Industry and Labor, a two-story brick reminder of the epidemic of joblessness in Mahoning Valley.

Standing guard outside what is commonly known as the steel museum are statues of workmen, carved from steel and thus untouched by an economy so weak that the local newspaper on Patton's desk carried an inch-high front-page headline: "Staggering job loss."

Joblessness - and free trade agreements many here blame for the phenomena - are top issues in a state that may determine whether John Kerry wraps up the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, when Ohio and nine other states hold elections.

Kerry and rival John Edwards are devoting enormous time and money to Ohio and its 140 delegates, giving voters a preview of their strengths and weaknesses as potential general election candidates.

more: http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-elect/2004/feb/26/022602718.html

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. dupe:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x400290

[rpannier]

2. They've done it agains

ONce again the Pukes have taken a surging economy and run it into the ground. (Eisenhower from 52-60)

[Moderator]

3. Locking.....

This is a duplicate. Please continue the discussion here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x400290


DU Moderator