A closer look at Zanesville, site of Obama visit

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) will announce his expansion of President Bush's faith-based charity programs today in Zanesville, Ohio after touring a charity ministry. As a battleground state, it’s no mystery why Obama will be in Ohio, but his campaign’s choice of Zanesville looks strange at first.

The city has fewer than 30,000 residents in a county of about 85,000. It’s 50 miles from Columbus and has a single television station that only serves Muskingum County. The county’s voters favored Republicans in 8 of the past 10 presidential and gubernatorial elections. It’s rural, 96 percent white and voted for Hillary Clinton over Obama by 3-to-1 in the March primary.

Then again it is that difficult territory Obama needs to personally campaign in so that he may cut into John McCain’s margins this Nov. to help win Ohio, according to veterans of Bill Clinton’s 1992 Ohio presidential campaign.

Geographically, Zanesville is the place to do it. It’s the midpoint between two major media markets that blanket southeast Ohio: Columbus to the west and Wheeling, W. Va. to the east. I-70 makes it easy for reporters from both areas to reach Obama in Zanesville.

“It’s a Columbus [media] hit, but it’s in an area he’s got the most trouble with: southeast Ohio,” said vice president Bob Clegg of Midwest Communications and Media, a Republican media firm. Clegg said the Obama campaign bought TV time only in the Wheeling area of West Virginia because Wheeling is the dominant TV market in southeast Ohio. .

Democratic strategist Greg Haas said U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) didn’t purchase advertisements on the Zanesville TV station in 2004 and that Obama’s presence in the area is a smart decision.

“I think it’s good that he’s going there,” Haas said.

Though Muskingum County has been historically Republican, it favored Democrats two years ago, giving 58 percent of its votes to Ted Strickland in the 2006 governor’s race and electing Zack Space to Congress from the 18th Congressional District.

ALSO on PolitickerOH.com:

• As Obama pushes faith-based initative, he vows return to SE Ohio
• Obama communications director says contentious primary laid groundwork for operation advantage 
• Strickland will campaign for Obama