In the past 48 hours, fresh polls have come out in Ohio that yielded starkly different results on the nationally watched race to succeed termed-out Republican Gov. John Kasich.
A just-completed Suffolk University/Cincinnati Enquirer poll of likely voters statewide showed liberal Democrat Richard Cordray leading Republican State Attorney General Mike DeWine by 46-40 percent.
But a Baldwin-Wallace Community Research Institute poll, also just completed, showed DeWine edging Cordray by 42.2039.2 percent. The margin of error was 3.5 percentage points.
There are growing views voters are simply tired of Republicans after eight years and ready to try something different in Columbus. Similar explanations were offered in 1982, when Jim Rhodes stepped down as Ohio's longest-serving governor and was succeeded by Democrat Richard Celeste.
When Celeste stepped down in 1990, Republican George Voinovich captured the governorship — again, some experts say, a case of voters growing tired with the ruling party.
"The case for 'voter fatigue' is intriguing," Ohio State University Prof. Herb Asher, author of three books on politics, told Newsmax. "I think it is plausible to speculate that some Ohioans may think it is time for a change from one party rule. I'll be interested in seeing whether any of the Democratic candidates start making that kind of appeal to the voters."
Cordray, 59, is a former state attorney general himself as well as former President Barack Obama's director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. His election would be an inarguable blow to any hopes Kasich has of running for president in the future, fueling the argument the lameduck governor could not keep his statehouse in GOP hands.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.