COLUMBUS -- From Oct. 1-16 physicians gave $76,900 to Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton and $53,129 to Maureen O'Connor for their respective Supreme Court election campaigns, according to a political watchdog group.

Ohio Citizen Action said more than $5.5 million has been raised by the four Supreme Court candidates this year. The races have been the most fiscally competitive of all the statewide races this year, and are also among the closest in the polls.

Stratton and O'Connor each raised more than $1.5 million for their campaigns, with both candidates receiving more than $630,000 combined from donors affiliated with medical groups, insurance firms, financial companies and the real estate industry.

Though both candidates have pledged to remain objective on issues that might come before the court, outside groups have pitched Stratton and O'Connor as favorable toward caps on medical malpractice jury awards, the lack of which doctors and the insurance industry blame for recent spikes in premium prices.

Meanwhile Democrats Tim Black and Janet Burnside have each collected more than $1 million for their election campaigns, both bringing in more than $760,000 from lawyers.

Of their top 50 contributors, 92 percent are members of the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers, which opposes jury award caps.

Blackwell predicts lower voter turnout

COLUMBUS -- Secretary of State Ken Blackwell this week forecasted that about 3.3 million people, or 47 percent of the voting population in Ohio, will go to the polls next Tuesday.

The turnout prediction is based on information from county boards of elections, including the total number of registered voters and various factors which might encourage or discourage voters from county to county. In the 1998 election 49.8 percent of Ohio voters cast ballots.

In the 2000 election, which featured a presidential race, 63.6 percent of Ohio voters went to the polls.

Blackwell also estimated voter turnout for each of Ohio's 88 counties, based on past voting patterns: