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Students Key To Victory In Wood County, Ohio

Chrystal Li, Daniella Segura |
November 6, 2012 | 6:26 p.m. PST

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Wood County, Ohio (Creative Commons).
Wood County, Ohio (Creative Commons).
It was business as usual Tuesday morning as voters like Sandy Milligan turned out in droves to the election polls in Bowling Green, Ohio.

“I was excited and a little dismayed to see the parking lot already full,” laughed Milligan, who arrived at the Bowling Green Church of Nazarene at 7 a.m. “After that, it went very smooth. There was one precinct that must have had 50 to 60 people in line… and I didn’t see anybody upset or grumbling.”

The scene was more or less the same at other polling places around Wood County--for which Bowling Green is the seat--according to both its Republican and Democratic campaign leaders. A good thing too, since the Wood County vote may prove crucial in this year’s presidential race.

The mid-sized swing county has long been an election bellwether for both Ohio and the nation. Since 1964, only one president has won the election without also winning Wood. The county has swung left and right in recent years, going to President Obama in 2008, former President George W. Bush in 2004 and 2000, and Bill Clinton in 1996.

GOP County Chairman Matt Reger said Wood--which has more Independents than registered Democrats and Republicans combined--votes based on issues, not partisanship.

“You don’t have a toss-up county that leans toward one party or another,” Reger said in a phone interview Friday. “A lot of people here are fiscally conservative, and maybe socially conservative on some issues but not on others. They don’t fit into that nice box all the time.”

This year, Reger said, economic issues like the budget deficit and taxes were shifting support to former Gov. Mitt Romney.

“There’s recognition that [Romney] has experience in the business world, that he knows we can’t solve the crisis by taxing rich people,” Reger said. “If you look at how our county is run, even down to the townships, it’s all run within budget. People are concerned when the national government can’t run in the same way.”

Romney’s message has certainly struck a chord with small business owners like Milligan, who runs a local packaging plant.

“Politicians need to remember that they don’t create jobs—businesspeople do,” Milligan, a Republican, said in a phone interview. “It’s a politician’s job to create an atmosphere fertile to business… We need to look at the impact every new regulation and tax is going to have on local businesses… and decide when [a tax] is too much.”

Democratic Party Chairman Mike Zickar said Obama’s good economic track record in Wood County has earned the incumbent support from many county residents.

“People really respect [Obama] for the tough decisions he’s made. People realize the positive effects the rescue of the auto industry had here,” Zickar said, referring to the 2009 federal auto bailout.

The auto manufacturing sector is second only to agriculture in Wood County, with Chrysler being its largest private employer. The county has maintained relatively low unemployment under the Obama administration - most recently at a rate of 6.3 percent, well below the nationwide average of 7.8 percent.

Zickar said Obama’s support of the Pell Grant program has resonated well with Bowling Green State University students, who are a key voting bloc in Wood County. As a result, the Democratic Party focused on increasing student voter turnout.

“[Students] vote heavily Democratic,” Zickar, a psychology professor at the university, said. “The Obama campaign had golf carts set to take [them] from campus to the early voting locations. That increased the number of students who have early voted exponentially.”

Reger acknowledged the “disproportionate” student support for Obama, but noted a lack of enthusiasm that could result in lower voter turnout among them.

“What’s different this year is we don’t see an enthusiasm from the students,” Reger said. “We don’t see them excited, involved, as motivated as they were in 2008. Now it’s four years later, maybe they’re a bit more jaded.”

 

Read more of Neon Tommy's coverage on the 2012 presidential election here.

Reach contributors Chrystal Li here and Daniella Segura here.



 

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