Now there are seven

Ohio — Republican Sen. Mike DeWine
If the national political climate is bad for Republicans, the environment in Ohio is downright toxic for the party. GOP Sen. Mike DeWine is suffering because of it. And as if the climate weren't enough of a challenge, DeWine is having difficulty finding a message that resonates with voters.

The Democratic nominee is Rep. Sherrod Brown. Despite having been Ohio's secretary of state before first winning election to Congress in 1992, Brown started this race virtually unknown beyond his suburban Cleveland district. Republican strategists say that this gave DeWine the chance to define Brown before the challenger could define himself. DeWine's first effort, a television ad criticizing Brown's record on national security, was criticized in the news media and by Democrats for including a doctored photo of the World Trade Center. DeWine's campaign appeared to be spooked by the criticism and pulled back, allowing Brown to focus on his own message of linking trade agreements to lost manufacturing jobs and to national security.

Now DeWine looks like an incumbent in search of a message, while Brown attacks him on national security, particularly for missing votes and hearings of the Senate Intelligence Committee. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is also airing ads attacking DeWine. One spot questions the incumbent's integrity by linking him to unpopular Republican Gov. Bob Taft, indicted GOP fundraiser Tom Noe, and convicted Rep. Bob Ney. The spot is a bit of a reach, because DeWine has never been implicated in the legal difficulties of those fellow Republicans.

Polling this month shows DeWine trailing Brown, who is hovering around 50 percent. Given the environment in the state, DeWine needs to be running ahead of Brown by Election Day if he is to overcome the advantage that virtually any Democrat on the ballot in Ohio is likely to have.

It is unclear what DeWine could do to change the trajectory of this race, and he is running out of time.

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