Inside Pitch

Brad Wenstrup, the newly-elected congressman from Ohio's 2nd Congressional District, has volunteered to join the House Republican Policy Committee, a group which helps set the legislative agenda for House Republicans.

Wenstrup - a 54-year-old podiatrist and Iraq war veteran from Columbia Tusculum - takes office in January, after pulling an upset victory over Rep. Jean Schmidt in the March GOP primary and easily defeating a little-known and seldom-seen Democrat, William R. Smith of Pike County, in the November election. Wenstrup won with 59 percent of the vote.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the first-term Republican, is almost dead even with a generic Democratic opponent, despite his rising job approval numbers according to a poll released earlier this month by Public Policy Polling.

Kasich is up for re-election in 2014.

The poll, conducted Nov. 3-4 among 1,000 Ohio likely voters, asked this question: "If there was an election for governor today, would you vote for Republican John Kasich or his Democratic opponent?"

The final Ohio Poll from the University of Cincinnati's Institute for Policy Research was only two-tenths of a percentage point off the final election results in the presidential and U.S. Senate races in Ohio.

That means the Ohio Poll has accurately projected the winner in all 40 of the statewide candidate and ballot issue races it has polle

d since 1994.