Ohio Democrats pick up key mayor's seat, make other gains

Ohio Democrats pick up key mayor's seat, make other gains

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Democrats crowed Wednesday about the biggest plum in their election-night gains - snatching a mayor's office from Republicans in a northeast Ohio county considered a bellwether in presidential elections.

The Democrats also held on to mayors' offices in Columbus, Chillicothe and Mansfield but lost a seat to the GOP in Newark in Republican-leaning Licking County.

In Canton in northeast Ohio, state Rep. William J. Healy II ousted Republican Janet Weir Creighton, who won in 2003 in a test of the Republicans' "72-hour" plan to get maximum turnout on Election Day.

President Bush's political adviser Karl Rove had targeted that race and others around the country as proving grounds for the last-hour push that helped give Bush a second term a year later.

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