In Ohio, Governor John Kasich, who snuck by the incumbent Democratic governor Ted Strickland in a real squeaker, is seeing his public approval numbers down in the 30 percent range.
The big question haunting the Republican Party has been whether the evangelical foot-soldiers could be bothered to do the grunt work or even turn out to vote (Karl Rove blamed Mr Bush's election squeaker in 2000 on the fact that 4m evangelicals stayed at home when they heard of young George's drunk-driving conviction).