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The Republican presidential candidates aren't the only ones trying to woo Ohioans ahead of Super Tuesday's voting.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich's fate in Congress rests with Buckeye voters from a stretch of land running along Lake Erie. The seven-term lawmaker went district shopping this summer when he learned his Cleveland-area district would be eliminated. But he decided to stay in his home state, and is now going up against a Democratic colleague on Capitol Hill, Marcy Kaptur, to represent a redrawn 9th district that merges the two lawmakers' territories.

The decennial reapportionment process has pitted incumbents of the same party against one another. The Kucinich-Kaptur primary is the first of several docketed intra-party races, some of which figure to be as nasty and divisive as the presidential contest. It's an uncomfortable position for these lawmakers, especially at a time when congressional approval ratings are at an all-time low. And in some cases, the redistricting knife has forced close friends into fierce battles.

Democrats stand a good chance of keeping Ohio's 9th Congressional District, so the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee isn't worried about Tuesday's outcome.

But Kaptur, one of the longest serving women in Congress and the head of the Ohio delegation, said she has a "deep concern" about Kucinich's way of governing. "I'm very worried about our region being shortchanged," the congresswoman told RealClearPolitics. (The new district includes most of Kaptur's Toledo territory, and parts of Cleveland's coastline counties.) "When I go into his region, I don't see the real results we've been able to achieve." Kaptur cited a completed transportation project in Toledo as an example, and criticized Kucinich for voting against bills that funded programs in the area.

Kaptur is painting Kucinich as politician so desperate to stay in office that he will abandon his constituents for a greater opportunity. "He [has gone] back on his own word to his own people," she said. "He was district shopping all over the country, and didn't make any secret about that. These are tough economic times . . . we can't have people who are distracted."

Kucinich's campaign argues he has long been a fixture in his northeastern Ohio district. "The one thing everybody knows, even if they don't necessarily read things, you know what he stands for," campaign spokesman Andy Juniewicz told RCP. "There are concerns in this part of the district about what happens if that changes."

The new map favors Kaptur, but Cleveland's onetime "boy mayor" is not going down without a fight. He's running an ad in the district with constituents describing him as a scrappy advocate.

Kucinich, one of the most outspoken anti-war members on Capitol Hill, is attacking Kaptur for supporting war-funding legislation. He hit her on this in a radio ad running in the Cleveland media market. "Maybe in Toledo politics, facts don't matter," says the ad's narrator. "Toledo's Marcy Kaptur voted to waste half a trillion on Bush's wars. Cleveland's Dennis Kucinich voted to bring our troops and their money home to rebuild our economy." Kaptur returned fire, saying the ad is critical of Toledo, a "community that he claims he wants to represent."

And that's not the worst of the airwave battle. A super PAC backing Kucinich is running two ads hitting Kaptur for owning a condo in the Washington, D.C. area, and for voting for a congressional pay raise. (Kucinich, however, owns a large home in Southeast D.C., which he bought in foreclosure two years ago and has since renovated.) Meanwhile, Kaptur is running a minute-long radio spot critical of her opponent for supporting a Cuyahoga County commissioner facing corruption charges.

It's the nitty-gritty politics of House races at its best -- but between same-party colleagues. "Member on member primaries are always tough, but it’s the nature of the business," says one Democratic strategist familiar with House races. "[These] primaries can also be quite intoxicating, as they can make for great political theater." But the candidates  must find a way to highlight disagreements without bringing down the party: "It's like the ultimate chess match."