Ohio is said to be an election bellwether state. This means that how the people in Ohio vote is an indication of how the majority of the rest of the nation will vote. Ohio, like other bellwether states, is a microcosm of the nation. Ohio, with only two misses in 1944 and 1960 is said to be 93.1% slightly “too Republican.” With the pro-union vote (61% to 39%) in the state’s last special election and the proposal to prohibit people from being required to buy health insurance also passing, I’m not sure which way the state is leaning. But there may be one thing to tip the scales: oil and jobs.
President Obama’s United States Department of Agriculture has delayed shale gas drilling in Ohio for up to six months by cancelling a mineral lease auction for Wayne National Forest (WNF). The move was taken in deference to environmentalists, on the pretext of studying the effects of hydraulic fracturing.