Obama, Romney due in area next week

COLUMBUS — Both President Obama and his Republican challenger, Mitt Romney, will be in northwest Ohio next week seeking to close the deal with voters in a critical battleground state.

The Democratic president is expected to visit Bowling Green on Wednesday, the same day that Mr. Romney plans to be a few miles away in Toledo. Details on both visits are pending.

Mr. Obama will also visit Kent on Wednesday while Mr. Romney’s stop is part of a three-day bus tour that will feature running mate Paul Ryan for part of the trip and the top of the ticket for the rest.

The “Romney Plan for a Stronger Middle Class’’ tour is to begin Monday in Lima with Mr. Ryan and continue Tuesday as the Wisconsin congressman heads for Cincinnati.

According to the campaign, Mr. Romney is to travel to Dayton on Tuesday and continue on to Columbus, Cleveland, and Toledo the next day.

Mr. Ryan is expected back in Columbus on Sept. 29 to headline the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance "Save Our Heritage" rally as the fight for the state’s 18 electoral votes intensifies. No Republican has ever made it to the White House without going through Ohio, and no Democrat has done it since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Mr. Obama was just in Ohio on Monday, at rallies in Cincinnati and Columbus, and Mr. Romney was in the state a week earlier.