Though some polls show President Obama holding a substantial lead over his Republican opponent, the head of an Ohio-based political action committee says the race in Ohio remains tight.
Despite the continued bad economy, a Real Clear Politics compilation of polls in the crucial battleground state shows Obama with more than a five point lead over Mitt Romney. But the reliability of the polls has been brought into question, with one showing Obama ten points up, but two others indicating just a one point lead for the president.
Mitt Romney's campaign is refuting the Obama campaign for claiming that its ground effort is superior. The former says it is not about the number of volunteers, but the quality of the contacts.
According to Phil Burress, chairman of Citizens for Community Values (CCV), Obama's ground game is limited to the big cities.
"There [are] 88 counties in the state of Ohio, and there [are] only 16 blue counties. In 2004, 72 red counties showed up to vote for Bush," Burress recalls. "Bush lost five of the six major cities, but rural Ohio showed up in mass. If rural Ohio shows up and votes in those 72 counties, then the blue counties don't stand a chance."
Burress has been on a "get out the vote" bus tour, visiting churches in each of The Buckeye State's 88 counties (see earlier story). He tells OneNewsNow he does not see evidence of a massive Obama ground game.
"We've put 7,000 miles on this RV travelling across the state of Ohio, and I've seen six Obama signs where this time four years ago there would have been hundreds, if not thousands …" he shares.
The CCV chairman adds that Ohio 2012 is much different than Ohio 2008, and the polling data is not accurate.