Live from the UC campus, Strickland-Blackwell

Politics rarely intrudes in this part of the UC campus, where College Conservatory of Music students lug oboes across the green and the sweet strains of violins drift out of the classroom.

Tonight, though, it will be a cacophony of a different kind.

In less than half an hour, Republican Ken Blackwell and Democrat Ted Strickland will square off in their third, and perhaps final, debate before the Nov. 7 Ohio gubernatorial election.

These events always attract partisans of both sides by the busload - supporters who don't have tickets for the debate inside the Patricia Corbett Theater but who nonetheless want to show up and help the cause.

An hour before the debate, the Blackwell folks were clearly winning in the street theater department, with fans of independent candidate Bill Peirce running a distant second.

Former Cincinnati councilman Charlie Winburn, Blackwell's Hamilton County coordinator, had about 50 Blackwell supporters - mostly college students - clad in yellow t-shirts and plastic hardhats, standing along Corry Avenue leading up to CCM, alternately booing and cheering passing cars, depending on which candidate's bumper sticker they were sporting.

At 6 p.m., Strickland's supporters were nowhere to be seen.