Ohio women leaders are already putting their  2014/ 2016 strategic election hats on because the mostly male House of Representatives are not quick to fix broken issues under Ohio Republican Speaker John Boehner's direction.

It's time for Women Voters to take a closer look at Jennifer Garrison of Ohio.  She is running against Republican Rep. Bill Johnson in a key competitive race.  Women voters ought to remember that not one single Republican Presidential candidate has made the White House without Ohio, and we view Ohio as the heart of a matter.

In addition to organizing Ohio women, we are being proactive with the burgeoning Hispanic vote and key swing independent voters.   Independent voters need to be better at organizing the rising independent vote and we know that both sides of the political spectrum spend a lot of money in convincing independent registered voters, too.

Methodology

On November 2-3, 2013, Basswood Research conducted a survey of likely general election voters in 20 congressional districts. These districts are widely viewed as the 20 most competitive ones currently held by Republican incumbents. The districts surveyed were: CA-10, CA-21, CO-6, FL-2, FL-10, IA-3, IL-13, IN-2, MI-1, MI-7, MI-11, MN-2, NE-2, NV-3, NY-11, NY-19, NY-23, OH-6, OH-14, PA-8. The survey was conducted by live professional interviewers by telephone. The overall sample size was 1000, with a margin of error of +/- 3.1%, at a 95% confidence interval. Each district contributed 50 interviews to the sample; as such, data in individual districts is much less reliable.

Key Findings

• Voters in key Republican districts are highly dissatisfied with political leadership in Washington across-the-board.

President Obama’s job approval rating is poor, with 41% approving and 58% disapproving. “Democrats in Congress” fare even worse, with 34% approving, and 63% disapproving. But it is “Republicans in Congress” who are in the worst shape in these Republican districts, with 27% approving and 70% disapproving of their job performance.

• Voters in key Republican districts want action on immigration reform.

Fixing the current immigration system is rated as “very important” by 70% of voters in these districts. An additional 23% rate action on immigration reform as “somewhat important.” Only 5% rate immigration reform as either “not very important” or “not at all important.”

• Voters prefer an imperfect immigration solution to no solution.

When given a choice between leaving the current immigration system the way it is, and “passing new laws that are not perfect, but do attempt to fix the serious flaws in the current system,” voters choose imperfect solutions over the status quo by a massive 77%-15% margin. That includes 67% of voters who consider themselves “very conservative,” and 72% of registered or affiliated Republicans.

The major elements of the comprehensive immigration reform proposals being considered in Congress have widespread support in these key Republican districts.

E-Verify: 80% support; 13% oppose

Dream Act: 78% support; 16% oppose

Earned pathway to citizenship for undocumented: 71% support; 21% oppose

Increasing fines for employers who hire 72% support; 23% oppose

Undocumented immigrants:

Increasing border patrol and border fencing: 67% support; 24% oppose

Increasing high tech legal immigration: 62% support; 30% oppose

• The combination of enhanced border security and pathway to citizenship represents a consensus position.

When presented with three options regarding the interconnection between border security to prevent future illegal immigration and citizenship for those who are presently in the country and undocumented, the following responses were found:

17% oppose a pathway to citizenship under all circumstances;

26% favor a pathway to citizenship even without any increase in border security;

50% favor a pathway to citizenship if it also includes substantially increased border security.

76% favor a pathway to citizenship, with or without enhanced border security.

If Priebus and the Ohio GOP think they can woo women and Hispanic voters in 2014 / 2016 with mere words, they have another think coming because what we see is the GOP ruining a good Thanksgiving / Christmas Season in 2013 — thus making it easy to ruin theirs come November 2014 for making us wait.  Their stalling and delay tactics will remain fresh in our Mexican American minds for the remainder of the 2014 election year.