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BRECKSVILLE, Ohio - When Democratic Rep. Betty Sutton won a difficult primary in 2006 to succeed Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in Ohio's 13th Congressional District in the left-leaning northeast corner of the state, she was expected to hold the seat as long as she wanted. But this year she's in one of the most competitive and expensive House races in the country against the self-funding Republican Tom Ganley.

In addition to the national climate making races tough for Democrats this year, local factors could push Ganley over the top. The district encompasses Akron and the outskirts of Cleveland, which has been rocked by a major political scandal involving Democratic officials in Cuyahoga County.

"I think Ganley's going to run over Sutton like she was standing still," said Ray Zadd, who owns the printing company, Mail Hub Plus, in the central part of this town.

Zadd, who considers himself a conservative but not necessarily a Republican, believes President Obama and the Democrats overreached and hadn't done enough for job growth. "Why did the president do health care first?" Zadd asked. "If he would have attacked the economy and jobs first, we would have been so much better off." Zadd said he tried to call Sutton's office during the health care debate to register his complaints and never heard a response.

Across the street from Zadd's shop is Maryann's Candies, which Carol Kwiatkowski own with her husband, Ron, and she delivers newspapers before heading to her shop. Due to her schedule, she said she hasn't had time yet to research the race and decide how she'll cast her vote.

"I always vote, and I used to vote Democrat all the time, but I don't know anymore," she said. Kwiatkowski explained that the new stories popping every day about the corruption case in Cuyahoga County have given her pause.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer has a special page on its site marked, "Cuyahoga County in Crisis: Continuing Coverage of the FBI's Public Corruption Investigation," and a reporter for the paper referred to the events as the "biggest political scandal ever to hit Cuyahoga County."

Details are seeping out every day about county commissioner, Jimmy Dimora, a former county Democratic Party chair who was indicted two weeks ago for accepting bribes.

According to the Plain Dealer's breakdown of the race, "Federal prosecutors say Dimora accepted gambling trips to Las Vegas and Windsor, Ontario, paid for by a halfway house that wanted county funding and a county employee who wanted a promotion." The scandal extends to the recently resigned county auditor Frank Russo, a Democrat who plead guilty to charges that he accepted hefty bribes in exchange for real estate contracts. He faces more than 21 years in prison. The paper lists profiles of more than 70 individuals connected to the case.

Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich represents the bulk of the county, which includes downtown Cleveland, but Sutton's district covers part of the district, and many of her constituents commute into the city for work. Sutton has no connection to the scandal.

At the same time, Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman has been spending a good portion of his time campaigning in the northeast part of the state as he tries to pick off independent voters and soft Democrats in his race against Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher, and his turnout efforts could give Ganley a boost.

Ganley is already well known in the district due to his automobile business, and he's chipped in $3.4 million of his own fortune to help further his cause. He had a $2.7 million in his war chest at the end of the last fundraising quarter, compared to $593,000 for Sutton.

Now, party operatives on both sides of the aisle estimate that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is spending more money in Ohio than in any other state and more money in Sutton's district than in any other district the committee is competing in this fall.

The committee began airing an attack ad against Ganley last week that bludgeons him for his track record with lawsuits in his four-decade career in the automobile business. Campaign materials Democrats are using in the district cite court cases against Ganley for firing employees on the basis of age and gender. They press that he has endured 400 lawsuits, some for violating the state's "lemon laws."

But Ganley officials said that approximately one-third of the cars owned by the district's residents are stamped with Ganley's labels. "Ganley Ford" vans are regularly visible along the highways from Lorain to Medina.

According to data provided to RealClearPolitics by an aide, Ganley has sold 550,000 cars, and his business has further serviced 5.7 million vehicles, so by the campaign's count, 400 lawsuits is a small percentage.

"You don't stay in business for 42 years if you're a crook," an aide said, adding that he has significant backing from law enforcement in the district.

Sutton's campaign is driving the message hard, however.

"Tom Ganley made millions of dollars as a dishonest used car salesman who ripped off hardworking people in Ohio," said Sutton spokeswoman Gwen Rocco. "For weeks, Ganley has been sending out negative, misleading mail pieces, attacking Betty Sutton for standing up and fighting for hardworking Ohioans. Northeast Ohioans deserve to know the truth - that Ganley has been sued over 400 times for his deceptive practices, and that his unfair policies will only make things worse for Ohio families."

Glenn Cech, who owns the Brecksville Doughnuts Shoppe with his brother, Dan, said he knows Ganley and doesn't believe the ads. He said he's been exasperated by the attack ads on both sides.

Cech said most of the people who come into his doughnut shop talk about job loss and foreclosures. "Even in Brecksville, there are foreclosures," he said, adding that he'd rather see elected officials talk about how they're going to fix them rather than fight on TV.

"I'm a strong Republican," Cech said, adding that he thinks Ganley will win because he's so well-known and liked in the area. But he pointed out that while he didn't vote for President Obama in 2008, he's disappointed in the GOP for not giving him a chance. "He's trying," Cech said and sighed that Obama got attacked too soon after taking office, but he suggested that a woman should be in the White House and said, "Now if we had Hillary [Clinton], wouldn't that be something?"