They voted for the health care bill. With enough money behind the opposition, could they be voted out of office next year?

Republicans aim to find out with a new effort to raise campaign funds for challengers to two dozen House Democrats who voted for the health care bill earlier this month.

Reverse The Vote Victory Committee was established this week with the Federal Election Commission as a joint fundraising committee that will collect contributions to distribute among 24 GOP challengers.

It's still months until the first nominees will be formally selected in primary elections, so the committee for the time being will give campaign funds to 24 separate "congressional victory committees" that in turn will deliver the funds to party nominees once they are determined.

Ohio automobile dealer Tom Ganley is airing a statewide television ad to introduce himself to the Republican voters who will decide whether he or former Rep. Rob Portman should be the party nominee in a key open-seat Senate race next year.

The 60-second ad touts Ganley's business background and takes an anti-Washington tone, with a narrator saying that Ganley's 47-year career of creating jobs and balancing budgets amounts to "hard work the Washington politicians don't understand." Ganley speaks only at the end of the ad, in a required disclaimer approving the communication.

"To help create jobs for Ohio, Tom Ganley knows Washington must stop reckless spending, cut taxes for small business, say no to taxpayer-funded bailouts of big business," the narrator says.

Ganley campaign manager Jeff Longstreth declined to comment on the ad's specifics, including how much the campaign is spending on it. "We're going where the voters are," he said.

Ganley is expected to spend millions of dollars ahead of the Republican primary election next May. Portman, a former budget and trade official to President George W. Bush, is well-funded, with $5.1 million cash-on-hand in his campaign account as October began. GOP officials are backing Portman and Ganley is running as a political outsider.

The Democratic candidates are Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher and Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner.

Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich is not seeking re-election.

UPDATE: Ganley's ad doesn't appear to be that large - a $60,000 buy on Fox only, according to Kevin DeWine, the chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, which has endorsed Portman.

CQ Politics rates the Ohio Senate race as a tossup.

To see how the 2010 Senate races are shaping up, check out the CQ Politics election map.

He was fired by Donald Trump. Now Surya Yalamanchili wants to be hired next year by voters in Ohio.

Yalamanchili, a marketing executive who might be remembered by fans of the NBC reality TV program "The Apprentice," is running as a political independent for the 2nd District House seat of Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt, according to a statement of candidacy and a statement of organization he recently filed with the Federal Election Commission.

In an interview on Monday, Yalamanchili emphasized the need for more responsibility and transparency in government. "The overriding issue for this campaign is to get special interests out of the way and get individual people's voices heard in government again," he said.

Dozens of House Democrats bucked their party on Saturday's health care vote. But how about those who might have taken a political risk by siding with their party?

Let's look at the Democrats from Republican-leaning districts who voted for the bill and Republicans from Democratic-friendly districts who opposed it.

Of the 49 House Democrats that represent districts that John McCain won in 2008, 18 of them voted for the bill.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. swung through Ohio Monday to tout the Obama administration's economic policy and to raise money for three junior House Democrats who should face challenging re-election campaigns next year.

In the morning, Biden headlined a Columbus fundraiser for Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy, whose likely 2010 opponent is former state Sen. Steve Stivers, the same Republican Kilroy narrowly defeated last year in an open-seat race in the 15th District.

According to a press pool report, Biden characterized Kilroy as a partner in the administration' effort to revitalize Ohio's economy. Kilroy in February was one of 246 House members, all Democrats, who voted for the economic recovery plan, which Biden said has provided needed relief to Ohio eight months after President Obama signed it into law.

Virginia Republican Rep. Eric Cantor, the House Minority Whip and one of the GOP's most potent fundraisers, used his leadership PAC last month to donate mostly to Republican candidates who are challenging Democratic incumbents in the 2010 election.

Cantor's organization, known as Every Republican Is Crucial (ERIC) PAC, reported Monday that it donated $2,500 apiece to five GOP challengers about whom the congressman and other national party officials are bullish.

They are Andy Harris of Maryland, a state senator challenging Rep. Frank Kratovil Jr. in a rematch of their close 2008 race in the 1st District; Martha Roby of Alabama, a Montgomery city councilwoman who is taking on Rep. Bobby Bright in the 2nd District; Steve Pearce of New Mexico, a former House member who lost a Senate race in 2008 and is seeking to reclaim his old 2nd District seat, now held by Rep. Harry Teague; Steve Stivers of Ohio, who is waging a rematch campaign against Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy in the Columbus-area 15th District; and Van Tran of California, an assemblyman who is taking on Rep. Loretta Sanchez in the 47th District.

In Ohio, Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt has drawn a 2010 primary challenge from longtime county commissioner Mike Kilburn, in what will be a race that will pit one outspoken conservative against another in the strongly Republican-leaning 2nd District in and around Cincinnati.

"I don't have anything against Jean Schmidt, but I think there's a movement to elect more conservative politicians to Washington," Kilburn, who serves in Warren County east of Cincinnati, told the Hamilton Journal-News late last week. "I have a burning desire to make sure this country won't go broke."

Kilburn, who is serving his seventh four-year term on the county commission, drew headlines this year when he opposed accepting some federal stimulus dollars for transportation projects on the grounds that it was "filthy money."

Ohio Democratic Reps. John Boccieri and Zack Space, both targets of comeback-minded Republican strategists in the 2010 election, will be raising money jointly later this month.

The Ohio Victory Fund was recently organized with the Federal Election Commission as a joint fundraising committee that will divide its receipts among the Boccieri and Space campaigns.

The committee was set up to accommodate contributions linked to a Boccieri-Space fundraising event later this month that will be headlined by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The Cleveland Plain Dealer said that the fundraiser will be held Oct. 26 in Cleveland, which is north of Boccieri’s Canton-based 16th and Space’s mostly rural 18th in east-central and south-central Ohio.

Boccieri is seeking a second term and Space is seeking a third term. Both men easily won their 2008 races and are among the 49 House Democrats who were elected or re-elected in districts last year that also voted for Republican presidential nominee John McCain.

— Greg Giroux

Ohio Republican Fred Dailey is challenging two-term Democratic Rep. Zack Space in what would be a rematch of their 2008 matchup in the 18th District in eastern and south-central Ohio.

But Dailey, who won 40 percent of the vote in that race, is running in a GOP primary next May that already includes state Sen. Bob Gibbs, whose campaign has drawn praise from national Republican officials, and Jeanette Moll, a former county magistrate who lost to Dailey in the 2008 Republican primary.

Dailey said in a statement Oct. 1 that he "learned a lot in 2008" and "am much better prepared for the challenges that lie ahead." He also criticized Space's voting record, including his backing of a cap-and-trade bill that aims to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

CQ currently rates the general election race as Democratic favored.

*To see how the 2010 House races are shaping up, check out the CQ Politics' election map.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland, a Democrat, can expect a tough 2010 challenge from Republican John Kasich, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey conducted Sept. 23.

The poll of 500 likely voters gives Kasich, a former House member (1983-2001) from central Ohio, 46 percent of the vote and Strickland 45 percent, making this likely November 2010 pairing a dead heat. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

Strickland and President Obama have nearly identically mediocre approval ratings, with 50 percent of voters saying they somewhat disapprove or strongly disapprove of their job performances.