Fmr US Rep. Steve LaTourette Spends a Day at The University of Akron

On April 22, Former United States Representative Steve LaTourette (R-OH) spent the day at The University of Akron. A nine-term Congressman who represented a district in Northeast Ohio, LaTourette is president of the Washington-based McDonald Hopkins Government Strategies and more importantly heads up the Republican Main Street Partnership, a group which supports mainstream Republican candidates and office-holders, particularly against Tea Party and far-right primary challenges.

LaTourette spent the entire day at Akron, speaking at a luncheon sponsored by the Akron Press Club and co-sponsored by the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics and the new campus organization No Labels of Akron. After that, he spoke to undergraduate and graduate students in my American National Politics Seminar and later that evening visited with Dr. John Green's and Jerry Austin's Campaign Battleground class.

LaTourette is a breath of fresh air--no bullet points and candor at all times.

Ohio, the Battleground States, and Candidate Visits During the 2012 Presidential Election

Here is some travel data from the 2012 presidential election. As you can see, Ohio led the way in combined candidate travel, followed by Virginia, Florida, Iowa, and Colorado.

Battleground state travel for 2012:

	Obama	Biden	Obama-Biden Total	Romney	Ryan	Romney-Ryan Total	Campaigns Combined
CO	15	1	16	7	8	15	31
FL	15	4	19	13	9	22	41
IA	12	3	15	11	7	18	33
MI	2	0	2	2	1	3	5
MN	1	0	1	0	1	1	2
NV	10	1	11	5	4	9	20
NH	7	1	8	6	2	8	16
NM	1	0	1	1	0	1	2
NC	5	1	6	3	0	3	9
OH	21	3	24	15	16	31	55
PA	2	0	2	4	2	6	8
VA	21	3	24	11	9	20	44
WI	8	3	11	3	3	6	17

First term travel by POTUS to Ohio has steadily increased since the early 1980s:

Reagan	9
Bush 41	18
Clinton	18
Bush 43	30
Obama	37