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2018 was a big election year in Ohio. Republicans held onto all five statewide executive offices including governor and super majorities in both the Ohio House and Senate. But there were a few bright spots for Democrats, among them the reelection of U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and the election of two Democrats to the Ohio Supreme Court.With election 2018 over, the focus now shifts to governing. Stay connected with the latest on politics, policies and people making the decisions at all levels affecting your lives.

Did the Blue Wave Crash on the Shore of Ohio?

David Pepper
JO INGLES
/
OHIO PUBLIC RADIO
David Pepper, Ohio Democratic Party chairman, says he's hopeful Democrats will once-again win elections in Ohio.

Numbers from the Ohio Secretary of State’s office show the so-called blue wave, nicknamed for Democratic enthusiasm that’s been evident in other states' races recently, might not be real in Ohio. 

Only a fifth of Ohio’s registered voters cast ballots and of those, there were 20 percent more Republican ballots cast than Democratic ones. Republicans say that’s evidence there’s not a blue wave in Ohio. But Ohio Democratic Party Chair David Pepper says there was more Democratic participation this year than in the 2016 primary. Still he says there are reasons why more Republicans voted.

“We maintained neutrality, we were not pushing the vote out," in the gubernatorial race, Pepper said. "That was up to the individual candidates. There also was $8 million more spent in the Republican primary than our side.”

Democrats are already taking a page from their playbook from 2006, when they won nearly all statewide offices. They are using phrases like “culture of corruption” and “pay-to-play” when talking about Republican controversies surrounding ECOT and payday loans.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment. Jo started her career in Louisville, Kentucky in the mid 80’s when she helped produce a televised presidential debate for ABC News, worked for a creative services company and served as a general assignment report for a commercial radio station. In 1989, she returned back to her native Ohio to work at the WOSU Stations in Columbus where she began a long resume in public radio.