One is Dennis Kucinich. The Ohio Congressman never won a primary, but kept his campaign alive long enough to get to his home state.

All that work to get here got him a mere 7 percent of the votes cast. In his home county of Cuyahoga, Kucinich got only 27 percent in a loss to John Kerry.

How bad is that? Compare Kucinich to Howard Dean.

Dean won his home state, Vermont, despite having dropped out of the race weeks before that primary.

Poor Republicans: The day after the election, Ohio's Republican Party chairman, Bob Bennett, did his best to describe George W. Bush as a cash-strapped victim of the Democratic Party's money machine.

Speaking in a news conference intended to officially kick off Bush's re-election bid, Bennett acknowledged that the president has about $150 million in his campaign war chest.

While that is far from a paltry sum, Bennett predicted Democrats and their allied interest groups will together spend more than $400 million in a coordinated attempt to oust Bush.

"Are you crying poverty?" one reporter asked.

Bennett said the point he was trying to make was that no one should blame Republicans for raising as much money as they can for Bush.

"I mean, we're not going to unilaterally disarm," Bennett said.

Voting machines: Another expensive controversy involves the voting machines Ohioans will use to elect the next president.

Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, Ohio's top elections official, has been leading a push to put new electronic devices in voting booths in all of the state's 88 counties.

The new machines are supposed to feature touch-pad screens that will make voting easier, and eliminate the hanging chad controversy that sent the last presidential election to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Lawmakers on the state's Controlling Board refused to grant Blackwell $127 million in federal funds he needs to buy the machines and won't consider it again until April, while a legislative committee studies security issues.

"We have to make sure we get things right and get them right the first time," said Sen. Bill Harris, R-Ashland.

Blackwell spokesman Carlo Loparo said potential problems with vote tampering and accurate record keeping have already been dealt with. Still, state Sen. Robert Hagan, D-Youngstown, said he'd like to hear that from Blackwell himself.

"We'd like the secretary of state to come before us so we can ask these questions," Hagan said.