LORAIN, Ohio – The office of Chase Ritenauer, the Democratic mayor of this north-central Ohio city, overlooks peacefully moored sailboats on Lake Erie – and a sewage treatment plant. So it goes for Ohio Democrats this election year: Some things look a lot better than others.

Republican Mitt Romney, they admit, has a real chance of putting the state back into the GOP column after President Barack Obama’s hard-fought win in 2008.

Still, after a disastrous 2010 midterm election, Ohio Democrats and many independents rallied last year to defeat a Republican-backed labor union law. The big question this fall, Ritenauer said, is “whether they come out in full force for President Obama.”