Cook Report: 18th District is a “Toss-Up”

Cook Report: 18th District is a “Toss-Up”
Gibbs’ Campaign Keeps Making Strides

Lakeville, OH – The Cook Political Report, one of the nation’s top independent, non-partisan sources for tracking Congressional races, has moved the race for Congress in OH-18 to ‘toss-up’ status from its previous ranking of ‘leans Democrat’, the third such national ranking service to move the race toward a Republican pick-up.

“The national experts are finally seeing what we are seeing on the ground and in our polling, that people in the 18th are tired of Zack Space’s job-killing agenda,” said Gibbs spokeswoman Emily Pettigrew.  “Unemployment has doubled since Congressman Space was sworn into office, yet he continues to vote for job-killing legislation like Cap and Trade.”

 The Cook Report ranking follows recent rankings by Real Clear Politics (Toss Up) and the National Review (GOP has better than 50% chance of a pick-up), all signs pointing to a Republican takeover in OH-18.  The 18th district already enjoys a 7 point advantage in Republican registration and is coming off of a huge Republican intensity gap from the recent primary elections.  Additionally, unions within the district have started a campaign they call “Skip-a-Space”, targeted at making sure members of the SEIU, UAW, UFCW and CWA do not vote for Zack Space in November.

“Republicans are energized for Bob Gibbs, and even Democrats are so upset that they are now boycotting  Zack Space,” said Pettigrew.  “Couple that with the double-digit unemployment under Space’s watch, and Bob Gibbs’ experience of creating jobs, and I think Zack Space is going to be looking for work come November 3.”