Very surprising considering the Ohio GOP has strictly enforced their ban on allowing Ohio businesses to donate to Dem candidates. Those who dared disobey felt their wrath in all parts of state government.
This also explains why the Ohio GOP and its minions have been producing bogus polling data in the governor's and US Senate race - to forestall the inevitable time when big donors read the handwriting on the wall...
"Northeast Ohio business people, including some staunch Republicans, are not flocking en masse to support J. Kenneth Blackwell, the GOP candidate for governor. And some of those who can’t make the long jump into the camp of Democratic candidate Ted Strickland are considering staying on the sidelines, wallets on hip.
The national Republican malaise isn’t helping Mr. Blackwell. However, the important forces behind the lack of business leaders’ enthusiasm for him are local.
To some degree, business people are expressing dissatisfaction with scandals involving prominent Ohio
Republicans and one-party rule of state government by the GOP. Others complain about the commercial activity tax enacted last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature and the proposed constitutional amendment Mr. Blackwell had pushed to put spending caps on state and local governments."
http://www.crainscleveland.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060605/REG/60602046/1008&Profile=1008