It's finally 2018, with statewide elections for governor and the four other executive officeholders - plus US Senate, the US House, the Ohio House and half of the Ohio Senate - just over 10 months away. But the race for governor actually started well over a year ago, when candidates first started testing the waters. Now there are nine confirmed candidates - six Democrats and three Republicans. Politico has called the Ohio governor's race one of the top ten to watch in the country. And David Cohen at the Bliss Institute for Applied Politics at the University of Akron says that's a certainty.

Longtime political strategists are also carefully watching what's happening, including Republican Mark Weaver and Democrat Jerry Austin.