Republican vice presidential hopeful Paul Ryan will campaign on the eve of Election Day at Winner Aviation at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, the campaign announced Thursday.
Ryan's return to the Mahoning Valley on Monday wraps up a day of campaigning that starts in Reno, Nev. and includes other midday events.
''This, I think, is expected to be the final campaign stop and that is pretty neat that the Romney campaign thinks enough of the Valley that they would choose Youngstown as the climax of the campaign,'' said Mahoning County Republican Party chairman Mark Munroe.
Doors for the event in Vienna open 6:45 p.m. and it's scheduled to begin at 9:15 p.m.
Free tickets are available at the Niles Victory Center in the Great East Plaza, 5555 Youngstown Warren Road or online at www.mittromney.com/oh.
On the eve of Ryan's visit, U.S. House Speaker Republican John Boehner will campaign in Niles for the Mitt Romney / Ryan ticket and other Republicans on the ballot in Ohio.
Boehner's ''Get Out the Vote Bus Tour'' will be pulling into the Niles Victory Center in the Great East Plaza at about 4:30 p.m.
According to a news release, Boehner will contrast Romney's job creation plan and President Barack Obama's ''utter failure to articulate'' a future economic vision.
''It's no secret that Ohio will play a very important role in this election and clearly the Mahoning Valley, as is the case with the other large population centers in the state, will play an important role,'' Munroe said. ''What the Romney campaign has to do, they have to counter the large Democrat numbers that typically come out of northeast Ohio.''
The latest Quinnipiac University / CBS News / New York Times swing state poll of likely voters shows that President Barack Obama continues to hold a 5 percentage point lead over Romney in Ohio, which is unchanged from an Oct. 22 poll.
Trumbull County GOP chairwoman Kathi Creed said visits like Ryan's ''help excite the base.''
''We need a little boost every now and then,'' she said.
Mahoning County Democrat Party chairman David Betras said ''people in the Mahoning Valley are smarter than to buy into the lies and the mass budget busting, middle class tax raising budget,'' proposed by Ryan.
An Obama campaign spokesperson said the visit is an effort to distract voters from Romney's ''true record.''
Winner Aviation at the airport has been a favorite place for Republican candidates to campaign in the Mahoning Valley.
In 2008, former presidential candidate Arizona Sen. John McCain and his running mate, the former governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, campaigned to thousands in one of Winner's hangars. Four years prior, former President George W. Bush campaigned there to about 15,000 people.
Ryan last campaigned in the Mahoning Valley on Oct. 13 at Youngstown State University. Before that, he made a quick stop at the Hot Dog Shoppe in Warren on Aug. 16 after a rally in North Canton.
Romney has been to the Valley once. That was a town hall-style event in Youngstown in March, a day before the primary election.
The most recent Democrat stop was Monday with Vice president Joe Biden and former President Bill Clinton at the Covelli Centre in Youngstown. The stop was supposed to feature Clinton and President Barack Obama, but the president was forced to cancel his visit to monitor Superstorm Sandy.
rselaktribtoday.com