There is an old political consultant slogan that sums up the ground game nicely here in Ohio - Yard signs don't vote. If they did, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul would have cleaned up Ohio.
Ohio went to Romney yes, but by a very slim margin and only after Romney's Super PAC ( Restore Our Future ) dropped boatloads of money into the state to squash Santorum's strong lead coming out of Michigan. But, if you were to only drive around the state you would have had a very different picture when it came to last night's results.
Here's a brief look at the polls before Restore Our Future dropped over $4.5 million in the buckeye state. Before the Money Drop, Rick Santorum was up by as much as 18 points in the polls. But that margain narrowed greatly as money for Romney poured in the state. One week of Restore Our Future money dwindled Santorum's lead and tipped the scales over to Mitt.
But, campaigns utilized the money well in terms of publicity because the only signs seen throughout the suburbs of Columbus, Ohio remained Mitt Romney and Ron Paul signs. Not once did I see a sign signaling a vote for Rick Santorum. Even campaign mailings remained marginal in the state. These suburban strongholds and the acres and yards these folks occupy showed no real Republican momentum which is a bad sign for the GOP come November.
What's the take-away here? You would have expected Romney to blow Santorum out of the water and have Ron Paul take a larger percentage of the vote, IF yard signs did, in fact, vote. But they don't and Ricky gave Mitt one of the closest wins in this campaign season and the closest Ohio primary since 1972.