BY SANDY THEIS and MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
TOLEDO -- When Jackie Thompson saw the campaign bus and heard the Democratic Party candidates start their stump speeches, she poked her head into the rally and sheepishly approached a woman in the crowd.
"Is there any literature?" asked the 38-year-old paralegal. "You know, something to read?"
Ms. Thompson wants to vote Nov. 3. She doesn't believe the campaign commercials she sees on TV. And she plans to make up her mind in the governor's race only after learning more about the major-party candidates: Republican Bob Taft, a Cincinnati native who is now the secretary of state, and Democrat Lee Fisher, a Cleveland native and former Ohio Attorney General.
Mr. Fisher and Mr. Taft are touring the state in campaign buses this weekend, hoping to rev up their supporters and court those who have yet to make up their minds.
Whoever wins over Ms. Thompson and the other undecided voters -- a bloc that polls have shown is growing -- will likely win Nov. 3.
Based on dozens of interviews, the voters -- already weary from news of President Clinton's affair with a White House intern -- are downright grumpy over the deluge of negative TV commercials in the governor's race.
They're dealing with it in different ways.
Anna Currie, a homemaker from Dayton, probably won't vote. If she does, maybe she'll "write in Mickey Mouse or some other rodent."
Garry Yarbrough of Findlay has refined his nightly channel-surfing technique.
"When the political ads come on, I just turn them off," said the 52-year-old manager at the Best Buy distribution center. "They shouldn't be knocking the other guy down all the time. I think people want to hear what they are going to do for me, my community and my kid's school."
Hold on to your remote control, Mr. Yarbrough. The toughest campaign commercial of the governor's race is headed your way. It comes from Mr. Taft.
During the first day of his three-day bus tour, Mr. Taft boasted to Bowling Green State University students that his campaign pulled all its negative ads off the air. In the meantime, however, his campaign was distributing a new ad that ends this way: "If you lie, you lose, Lee."
Intended to counter Mr. Fisher's current ad, which tells voters to "Send a message to the politicians. If you lie, you lose," the Taft ad started running in Cleveland Friday and will air statewide by Monday, said campaign spokesman Brett Buerck.
It mimicks a Fisher campaign commercial that began last week. The Fisher spot refers to the Ohio Elections Commission's unprecedented ruling that found the Taft campaign guilty of lying twice in a previous anti-Fisher TV commercial.
The new Taft commercial resurrects controversy over a commercial that Mr. Fisher aired four years ago in his unsuccessful re-election campaign against Betty Montgomery. The Fisher ad criticized Ms. Montgomery, a former Wood County prosecutor, for a plea bargain with a convicted child molester.
Newspapers criticized the Fisher ad, saying it was unfair.
The Taft ad implies that Mr. Fisher lost the race because of the child molester ad. Many experts said the ad played a role, but most attributed his defeat to the strong showing by Republicans nationwide and depressed Democratic turnout.
Democrats in Ohio nominated a little-known state senator to lead their ticket that year, Rob Burch. Mr. Burch got just 24 percent of the vote, a record low.
At Kewpee's restaurant in Lima, Ed Lawson shrugged off suggestions that politicians air negative ads because they work.
"I was troubled that Taft put out an ad that lied," said Mr. Lawson, an Allen County parole officer. While he is a registered Republican, he plans to vote for Mr. Fisher.
"I like truthfulness," he said when asked why.
Troy Boughan, a business consultant for the state Bureau of Workers' Compensation, and his wife, Tammy, a homemaker, said they want the candidates to talk more about what they would do to improve Ohio's schools.
"I think it's easy for people to be complacent because the economy is going well and people seem to be satisfied," he said. "But there still are a lot of important issues out there."
'We deserve better'
Asked to assess Mr. Fisher and Mr. Taft, the couple echoed others who said they have been turned off by the content and tone of the candidate's ads.
"I'll still vote Republican, but I don't like his (Mr. Taft's) campaign," Mrs. Boughan said.
Aaron Wright, 54, a court administrator from Oregonia, was more forthright. He greeted Mr. Taft in Lebanon with a scarlet and gray T-shirt that said "Buckeyes for Taft."
"I believe in Bob Taft. He's honest, he's got fresh ideas for Ohio. He's the man," Mr. Wright said.
Even though the elections commission hammered only the Taft campaign, many voters give both candidates equal blame for the campaign's tone.
"They are like a bunch of high-schoolers," said Rebecca Roe, a Springfield homemaker interviewed during Mr. Taft's bus tour. "We deserve better."
"There's a little too much trashin' each other," said Regina McClain, a Dayton mother of two, interviewed during the first stop of the Democrats' bus tour.
Ms. McClain volunteered support for Mr. Fisher's emphasis on reforming HMOs.
"We should be able to pick our own doctor, not have some bureaucrat do that," she said, parroting a line out of Mr. Fisher's TV commercials.
Health, maybe an issue
As he travels the state, Mr. Fisher continues to promote his HMO reform with stories of people harmed by the existing system.
In Toledo, he introduced Sandra Davis, whose husband could not get his bone-marrow transplant approved unless he changed doctors.
So he changed to the HMO-approved doctor, Mrs. Davis said, then was told he couldn't get an appointment to see the doctor for two months.
"His old doctor had to call the new man and tell them we needed to get in right now," she said. "It's a mess. When you're sick, you don't need to be worrying about this."
For the past two months, the Taft campaign has been privately criticizing Mr. Fisher's emphasis on health care, noting that it seldom surfaces in polls asking voters to list the top issues.
Some others who plan to vote for Mr. Fisher say they're really voting against the Republican Party.
"Lee Fisher has a real good chance, not necessarily because what Lee Fisher has done but what George Voinovich hasn't done; he hasn't protected the working man and he hasn't fixed the schools," said Jeff Monroe, a United Auto Workers member who attended a Democratic Party labor rally in Lima.
Labor motivated
"Labor's still upset about Issue 2," last year's ballot issue that supporters said would have streamlined the state's workers' compensation system but detractors argued would have unfairly cut benefits to injured workers. Organized labor is generally credited with defeating the issue.
Handing the veto pen to a Democrat, he said, would give working people an edge they currently lack.
In Toledo, Robert Sopher of the carpenters' council said his union is rallying behind Mr. Fisher in part because of Issue 2 and because legislators passed a bill that exempted school construction projects from paying union-negotiated wages.
When asked if the same level of outrage is present for this election that was present for Issue 2, Mr. Sopher conceded, "It's not quite to that degree, not yet at least."
Dan Martin, also a Toledo labor leader, said he senses the anger building.
"Fear and money motivate people," he said. "When you're afraid you won't have a job, or your wages will be cut, you get off your butt and vote."
Opinion polls show the race for governor remains close, but Mr. Taft is so confident of victory that his campaign held its first meeting to plan for the transition from Republican Gov. George Voinovich's administration.
"We've talked about some names for the cabinet and other posts, but no decisions have been made," Mr. Taft said. "Of course, we have to win first."
Alan Melamed, Mr. Fisher's campaign manager, said no transition meetings have taken place but one is scheduled.
"It'll be the day after the election," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
