A headline for the latest Los Angeles Times editorial may sum up the 2012 election in a nutshell - "All voters matter, but Ohio voters matter the most."
That certainly seems to be the theme of the day with the campaigns for President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, with both campaigns launching aggressive pushes for the Buckeye State with only 12 days remaining until Nov. 6.
Recent polls are showing Obama holding a lead in Ohio by either a three or five point margin. TIME's newest poll, released Wednesday, showed Obama with a 49 percent to 44 percent lead over Romney in the critical swing state.
In the TIME poll, the gender gap is playing in Obama's favor, with 56 percent of women in Ohio supporting the president while Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, is only 37 percent favorable with women. With men, 51 percent of Ohioan males are backing Romney and 42 percent support Obama.
Romney has a four point edge in handling the economy, 50 percent to 46 percent. On the question of which candidate would better represent the interests of the middle class, Obama won 50 percent of the backing of poll respondents, while Romney finished back at 44 percent.
As NBC First Read's Michael O'Brian pointed out, the grandstanding on who is actually winning the battle for Ohio has already begun among the two parties.
On Thursday, Jeremy Bird, National Field Director for the Obama campaign, posted on his campaign's web site that the president was already ahead of the pace they were at during this time in 2008, when Obama won the state by a 4.6 percent margin.
The main reason, Bird points out, is due to early voting, where he says Obama is leading Romney by double-digits in public polls of early voters. In addition, voters in counties that Obama won in 2008 are not only voting earlier at a higher rate, but have cast 53,000 more ballots this year than people in precincts that voted Republican in 2008.
"We're also encouraged by the enthusiasm among Ohio voters who didn't vote in the midterm election and who matter most in a get-out-the-vote effort," Bird wrote. "Non-midterm voters who live in precincts that voted for Obama in 2008 have cast 52 percent more ballots compared with non-midterm voters in Republican precincts."
The Republicans countered with a memo on their GOP.com site claiming that the Democrats were actually eating away at their Election Day votes and there were more than 380,000 Republicans who haven't voted yet.
"Republicans have been focused on increasing turnout among those Romney supporters who are less likely to vote and banking those votes during the early vote period," the web site statement read. "This effort has been successful as we wrote last week. The Democratic early vote advantage in the state has dwindled every day and is far behind its pace in 2008."
The ads in Ohio and several other swing states are kicking up, as well. CNN reported Wednesday that Romney's campaign has bought more than $30 million in advertising ads in Ohio and several other swing states, $9 million ahead of the $21 million Obama's campaign is spending on ads in those states.
However, on the comparison of what the campaigns are spending on ads this week with the exclusion of outside groups, the Obama team this week is outpacing the Romney campaign, $17.8 million to $12.3 million.