ELECTION 2004

Convention coverage • Ohio GOP's woe • Davis gets NY minute • GOP touts moderates • Gay activists won't push floor fight • Laura Bush's star is rising • Ohioans get special treatment • Notes from New York • Convention blog watch • Convention photo gallery More election news • Election special section

No one's debating it any more: Ohio is the state.

The delegation's breakfast speakers Monday were Bush re-election campaign chairman Ken Mehlman, White House strategist Karl Rove and Missouri Rep. Roy Blunt, the No. 3 member in the U.S. House.

Ohio's breakfast lineup "tells you everything you need to know about the importance of Ohio to the White House," state GOP Chairman Bob Bennett said.

Kentucky had to scrounge up speakers included Gov. Ernie Fletcher and Sen. Jim Bunning of Southgate.

"You're going to see a lot of us," Rove said. "You are, like it or not, ground zero. We're going to be back and back again. ... We've got 64 days left, not that anybody is counting, and I'm asking you to do more than you've ever done before."

President Bush visited the state Saturday. He'll have a Wednesday rally in Columbus before flying to the convention. And he'll return Saturday to Cleveland and Ashtabula.

Ohio's seats on the convention floor are, of course, front and center. "And we're front and center in this election," Gov. Bob Taft told delegates Monday.

Kentucky's seats are at the very back of the floor.

Why is Ohio being courted? Here are two reasons. A Columbus Dispatch poll released Sunday had Bush and Kerry each with 46 percent of the vote in Ohio. Strategic Vision, an Atlanta-based Republican polling firm, released a survey Monday showing Bush leading Kerry 48 percent to 43 percent, within the poll's margin of error - meaning the two are tied.

Ohio is, as is often said, the Florida of 2004. And that's fine with Kentucky's secretary of state, Trey Grayson.

"I'm glad I'm not in Ken Blackwell's shoes," he said of his Ohio counterpart. "Ken could be the next Katherine Harris."