Rallying the troops during a trip to Trumbull County Tuesday, Chris Redfern sought to assure organized labor and the party faithful amid an environment that increasingly appears to favor Republicans this fall.

Redfern cited advantages in party identification and criticized the GOP state ticket during appearances at the United Auto Workers 1112 hall and Trumbull County Democratic Party headquarters.

The Ohio Democratic Party remains the largest state party organization in the country -- Democrat or Republican -- in the nation, and has nearly 300 employees and a corps of 27,000 full-time volunteers statewide. In Ohio, 2.5 million registered voters identify themselves as Democrats versus 1.4 million as Republicans, he said.

That offers Democrats a "distinct advantage, but only if we get those people to the polls," he said.

Democrats have an 88-county strategy to knock on every door and invite residents to either go vote early or request a ballot by mail. Throughout the summer, Democrats have engaged with nearly 1 million voters to discuss how Ohio is going to move forward with Gov. Ted Strickland, Attorney General Richard Cordray and Lee Fisher as a U.S. senator, he said, pointing to the expansion of jobs at General Motors' Lordstown plant.

Democrats have "the best ground game" and are right on the issues, he said.

"At the end of the day, it won't be about the number of ads that will be on television or the number of dollars that will be spent," Redfern, flanked by area labor and political leaders. "It's going to be about the number of door knocks my friends behind me help make on behalf of the families we care deeply about in this very important part of the state."

Much of Redfern's criticisms of Republicans -- particularly GOP gubernatorial candidate John Kasich, U.S. Senate candidate Rob Portman and attorney general hopeful Mike DeWine -- focused on familiar themes. He accused all three of supporting "job-killing" trade deals that have resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs locally -- at companies such as Delphi, General Electric, Denman Tire and "too many others " -- and across the state.

"After supporting the economic and trade policies that drove our country into a ditch," Kasich, Portman and DeWine "want to be put back into the driver's seat," he remarked.

"If history is any guide, Republican candidates will work against Ohio's working families while Democratic leaders will continue to work for those working families," he said. In the last six months, he said, more jobs have been created in Ohio than in most other states, he said.

He also noted that Kasich, as a member of the board of directors of Invacare Corp. in Elyria signed off on sending the jobs of nearly 300 workers to China and Mexico.

Commenting on the Tea Party movement, which has helped to energize Republican campaigns over the past several months, Redfern acknowledged he doesn’t attend many of their rallies. "I don't tend to associate myself with people who are going to hold up a sign and compare our president with Adolf Hitler. I don't go to events where those who shout the loudest get the most applause," he said.

Regarding the enthusiasm gap many pundits see between Democrats and Republicans, Jim Graham, Local 1112 president, said people don’t tend to get enthusiastic about an election until about two weeks out. In fact, he is concerned that if people were excited now, it would be like a football team getting "geeked out" nine weeks before a game. "You want to peak right at election day and that's our intent. We can get this thing done, especially in this area," he said. 'I'm very confident, but if people were hyped up right now that enthusiasm would wane going toward the election."

Republicans responded to Redfern's criticisms regarding Invacare, also the subject of a Strickland campaign ad, and his analysis of the ground game.

"Ted Strickland's ceaseless negative attacks and smears crossed the line long ago, and if he could say anything positive about his record he would have caught on to that before now," said Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols. "The thought that Ted Strickland would even consider a strategy of attacking an Ohio company -- and Lorain County's largest corporate employer -- for his political gain is just more proof that he doesn't know how to work with businesses to create jobs, just as he doesn't know how to manage state agencies and Ohio's budget."

The campaign also released a letter sent by representatives of Lorain County business calling on Strickland to take down the ad.

Ohio Republican Party spokesman Jason Mauk said Democrats are in a similar situation Ohio Republicans faced a few years ago. After running a campaign in the state that The New York Times described as "ruthlessly efficient" and that arguably delivered the White House for President Bush in 2004, two years later the GOP lost statewide by 23 points. "That's evidence that ground game doesn’t guarantee you success on election day," he said.

Mauk says he looks at the ground game as the vehicle and intensity as the fuel, and Democrats don’t have the intensity. "They have a defeated base. We know what that's like," he reflected.

This year, "We're very confident in our ground game," he said. "Intensity is on our side."