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Ohio River.
• Romney seems to have an opening.
• "The only driver here is the economy, and we've seen what Barack Obama has to offer," said Andrew Kvochick, a 30-year-old lawyer from Lexington who voted for Obama in 2008. "We'd like to see what Mitt Romney has to offer."
• Kvochick was among more than 1,500 at a rally Romney headlined at PR Machineworks in Mansfield.
• Winning Ohio's big cache of 18 electoral votes is critical for Romney, who has fewer state-by-state paths to the 270 electoral votes needed for victory than Obama does. If Romney loses here, he would need to win several other states to make up the difference.
• In Ohio, Obama beat John McCain 52 percent to 47 percent four years ago, primarily by increasing support among black voters, white college graduates and young people. This year, Romney leads nationally among white voters without college degrees, and he's targeting them heavily across the Midwest, including in Ohio, to counter Obama's advantages among minorities and whites with more formal education.
• Much can change between now and Nov. 6.
• In a close race, the campaigns' get-out-the-vote operations could be worth a few percentage points -- and even Republicans acknowledge that Obama's organization is superior given that it never really went away after his 2008 victory. Since then, aides have kept in touch with voters and have kept track of the president's strongest supporters and weakest allies. Obama's data analysts have dug into those supporters' habits -- magazine subscriptions, television viewing habits, pet ownership -- to pinpoint what messages best reach them to re-invigorate backers who worked for Obama four years ago but may be less enthusiastic this year.
• Although he still lags Obama in this area, Romney is much better positioned here than McCain was, with many times more people and offices than the Arizona senator had at this point in the race four years ago. And the GOP is paying closer attention to getting people to vote early in a state where election officials anticipate the number of early votes to grow to as many as a third of ballots.
• Early voting here starts Oct. 2. Obama won among those who voted before Election Day four years ago but Romney's team is bullish on its chances of winning among those voters this year.
• ___
• Associated Press writers Philip Elliott in Washington and Matthew Daly in Milford, Ohio, and Jennifer Agiesta, AP deputy director of polling, contributed to this report.

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