Obama took Franklin County by winning nearly 100,000 more votes than John McCain did, powered by the huge margins piled up in Columbus precincts. But Obama also was aided by once-staunchly Republican suburbs that are becoming more politically diverse and shifting to Democrats, an analysis of Franklin County elections data shows.

Democrat strategist Greg Haas said he's noticed the shift since the impeachment hearings of President Clinton about 10 years ago.

"The absolute hatred for Bill Clinton that many on the far right had, I think began to drive off a lot of people," Haas said. "There's been this kind of gradual unraveling."

Republican strategist Terry Casey dismissed that theory. His polling shows "a real voter anger that cuts across both political parties."

"(President) Bush has his problems, but the Democratic Congress is not exactly loved either," Casey said.

Haas was shocked by Reynoldsburg's shift. "It was always one of those areas that was kind of Death Valley for Democrats."

Former Reynoldsburg City Councilman Preston Stearns said he sensed that Obama would win the city, but he said the Democrat's margin of victory was surprising.

Obama beat McCain 6,600 to 5,798 in the Franklin County wards of Reynoldsburg. In the growing Licking County part of the city, Obama's advantage was 2,432 to 1,976.

Reynoldsburg went for George W. Bush in 2000 and again, though by a lesser margin, in 2004.

Mayor Brad McCloud, a Republican, thinks this election was a special case of an unpopular president and war and a weak economy. "I think those three things came together to create something of a perfect storm."

Obama's campaign had an intensive ground effort in Reynoldsburg, Stearns said.

"Nothing like that happened before in Reynoldsburg," he said. "It was really a smooth operation."

Four years ago, Worthington tipped Democratic by a mere 31 votes for John Kerry. On Tuesday, Obama topped McCain by more than 1,000 votes in the city.

"It's a dampened spirit," said Worthington City Councilman and longtime Republican Mike Duffey. "You can't win a game in sports if your team is not energized and the other team is hungry and motivated."

Some Republican strongholds such as Upper Arlington and Gahanna veered toward more balanced results. Leaders in those cities think that reflects the politically independent nature of their citizenry.

Obama nearly captured Gahanna; McCain won the suburb by only seven votes, 9,088 to 9,081. Bush won Gahanna by more than 2,000 votes in both 2000 and 2004.

State Rep. Jim McGregor, a Republican who narrowly lost his seat Tuesday, said Gahanna always has been a politically independent community.

"The economy is a concern of everybody's," McGregor said. "People felt there needed to be a significant turn in course."

In Upper Arlington, Bush defeated Democrat Al Gore by almost 5,000 votes in 2000. Four years later, Bush's victory margin dropped to 2,718. On Tuesday, the suburb went Republican by 886 votes.

Voters choose a candidate "more for what they see the issues are; party loyalty may be getting less firm," veteran Upper Arlington City Manager Virginia Barney said.

Barney said her city shares more similarities with Columbus neighborhoods such as Clintonville and Victorian Village, which leaned toward Obama, than with Hilliard, Grove City or Marysville, which stayed strongly Republican in Tuesday's election.

Haas said Republicans probably will receive the wake-up call, but "if they think more hate, more divisiveness is the solution, they're badly mistaken."

"The people who scream (about Obama) 'off with his head' or 'traitor' at a (Sarah) Palin rally ... as long as they give in to this, they're going to continue to spiral downward," Haas said.

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