The Columbus Dispatch reports on a new local survey showing continued public discontent:

Despite the Bush administration's aggressive attempts in recent weeks to justify America's presence in Iraq, the popularity of the war and the president himself are at all-time lows in the Columbus area.

A new poll on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack shows Bush's approval rating at 38 percent -- the first time it's dipped below 40 percent in regular surveys for The Dispatch by Saperstein Associates.

Also for the first time, fewer than one in three say the war is worth the toll in American lives and other costs.

That's a big reason Rep. Deborah Pryce is in what she call's "a knife fight" with Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy in OH-15 and why Republican Pat Tiberi in OH-12 was last seen running in the opposite direction of President Bush and Don Rumsfeld.

As the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported yesterday, interests groups are back with a vengence in Ohio, spending tons of cash to try and influence key races across the state and up and down the ticket. Pryce has been getting hammered with ads from Moveon.org accusing her of "protecting contractors like Halliburton." But Pryce had more than a two-to-one cash advantage over her opponent at last filing (end of June) and she went up with a $1.8 million ad buy starting the first week of September.

So far, there isn't any public polling available in this race, but all signs point to it being very competitive. We currently have OH-15 ranked nineteenth on our list of competitive House races, and National Journal has it up two spots to number 15 in its latest rankings. Larry Sabato rates the race "leans GOP," and last week Charlie Cook (and Amy Walter) moved OH-15 from leans GOP into the toss up column.