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COLUMBUS — — Maybe Republican Ken Blackwell isn't conservative enough to be elected Ohio governor.

That couldn't be true, of course.

Blackwell — J. Kenneth in formal settings — is "Mr. Conservative" or at least he described himself that way to fellow Republicans during the bruising gubernatorial primary in which he crushed Attorney General Jim Petro.

Conservative, however, isn't always defined the way Blackwell defines it – smaller government, lower taxes and opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage.

Political scientist William Binning, a Republican like Blackwell, said in a phone chat last week there's another definition, one that may be causing Blackwell to lag behind his Democratic opponent Ted Strickland in public opinion polls in the governor's race.

Ohioans are "conservative in a sense," said Binning, political science chairman at Youngstown State University and a former Mahoning County Republican chairman.

"They don't like a lot of big changes," he said. "I think that's the problem Blackwell is running into."

Blackwell is the candidate of big changes, a proud bull in the political china shop. He championed one big change — the Tax Expenditure Limitation constitutional amendment – before abandoning it this year and settling for a scaled-down legislative version.

The amendment would have put limits on state and local government spending into the Ohio constitution, limits that could have been changed only by another amendment requiring voter approval.

The legislative version applies only to state general fund spending and can be changed by a simple majority vote of the legislature.

Blackwell declared victory but really didn't get the change he once made the centerpiece of his campaign. In the process, Blackwell riled up what Binning called the "local government crowd and school crowd," not good crowds to get riled in an election.

Then there's Blackwell's plan to lease the Ohio Turnpike to private operators for 99 years and use an estimated $4 billion to $6 billion for economic development, transportation projects and other uses.

The turnpike runs through the Youngstown-Warren area where Binning lives. Lots of people don't seem ready for this change, he said. They say things like "this is our turnpike," and "people work out there" and "they're going to jack up the tolls," Binning said.

"I think the turnpike thing turned out badly. I'm not speaking about whether it's good policy," he said.

Strickland, meanwhile, has been the "conservative" candidate so far by "being more or less for nothing," Binning said.

Strickland would certainly dispute that description of his strategy, but so far it seems to be working.