With the Ohio primary over a month behind us, here is a belated update on the state of play for races for the General Assembly and State Senate. Before moving into primary results, here are two pre-primary updates that I discussed in a previous comment but want to re-post here.
First, in District 5 the Republican candidate Craig Newbold decided not to run in a rematch against State Rep. Nick Barborak (D) and has been replaced on the ballot by a weaker candidate. This new candidate is a minister named Tim Ginter who was trounced in a run for State Senate in 2008. Although this development occurred before my diary on Ohio House Races, somehow I missed this story. As a result, I am moving this race from Toss Up to Leans Democrat. As a result, 38 seats are now Lean Democrat or better, with the only Democratic-held seat remaining as a Toss Up being the Open Seat in the 28th District near Cincinnati. (more on that seat later)
In the 3rd State Senate District (a 54.5% Obama seat!) held by Republican Kevin Bacon, Marco Miller -who appeared to be our stronger candidate- was disqualified from the ballot. According to the article from the Columbus Dispatch I link above, Miller said he could not afford to appeal this decision. I'm not sure why the State Democratic Party didn't get involved here, but with only a some dude(ette) candidate named Star Johnson left on the ballot, I am downgrading this race from Leans Republican to Safe Republican. Currently, Bacon leads Johnson in cash on hand by a huge $70.5k to $260. What a fail for the state Democratic Party!
My update continues after the fold.
