Battle for PA: Bitter Voters, Republican Converts and Huge Turnouts for Both Campaigns

By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet. Posted April 21, 2008.

As Pennsylvania's Primary ended its final weekend of campaigning, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) refined his message of change by saying he was the only candidate who would end Washington's way of doing business, while Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) emphasized that she was better prepared to implement a Democratic agenda as president.

The contrasting leadership styles played out against backdrop of intense public interest in an increasingly blue state that has not seen a competitive presidential primary in decades. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Sunday that there are 325,000 newly registered Democratic voters across the state -- a figure equal to Pittsburgh's population -- with 15 percent telling pollsters they are undecided.

Both candidates brought thousands of people to each of their many events.

On Friday, Obama held his biggest rally yet in any state, drawing 35,000 people in Philadelphia. Still, local political activists predicted Tuesday's vote would be close in Pennsylvania's biggest city, an Obama stronghold, as the both its current mayor and governor -- a past mayor -- are pushing longtime Democrats to support Clinton.

Meanwhile, Clinton has also drawn crowds outside Philadelphia as she and supporters, including former President Bill Clinton, have focused more in the western part of the state, notably in the Pittsburgh and Scranton areas, as the campaign is concluding. She is expected to carry that region and the Lehigh Valley, northwest of Philadelphia.

Notably, it was not difficult to find Republicans at Obama and Clinton events. However, although only a few said they changed their voter registration to Democrat, a prerequisite to vote in the state's Democratic Primary.

The final campaigning also came as both campaigns spent heavily on media. Both aired numerous television commercials, as well as making pre-recorded phone calls to voters. While staffers at both campaigns accused each other of throwing political mud, many voters said they were looking at who could be the best change agent in Washington.

The Obama train

On Saturday, Obama held a series of rallies at commuter railway stations heading west from Philadelphia, starting in the suburbs and then crossing countryside until arriving at the state capital, Harrisburg, for a finale on the Statehouse steps. These suburban and outlying communities were considered swing voters, newspapers said on Sunday.

At a few minutes before 2 PM, Obama and Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) disembarked from a chartered AMTRAK train to speak at the Paoli Rail station, a half-hour from downtown Philadelphia. Obama stood to the left of the gritty, old station house with rusting beams showing. Behind him, the rail line was old enough that the copper electrical lines above the tracks had bronzed while the nearby steel towers were rusty. Across the street were mom-and-pop stores, not national chains. The crowd was mostly white.

Upfront, near the podium, was a broad-shouldered middle-aged man holding up a poster that said, "Middle-aged white guys for Obama," a message targeting pundits who have said that demographic was likely to pull the state toward Clinton. Jim Fields of Malvern was ready to talk to the media.

"The reason I am for Obama," he said, "is he inspires people and I am tired of settling for the lesser of two evils. I wouldn't have put Hillary in that class if Barack had not come along; but it's also because of Hillary's tactics."

I asked if he was referring to televised ads that were aggressive.

"I'd call them destructive," Fields said. "The only way that she will get the nomination at this point is tearing down Barack, and the last thing we need is four more years of Bush -- which is what we'll get from McCain."

He then described why he made his sign.

"One of the reasons I brought this particular sign is I was tired of the media claiming people like us (middle-aged white guys) are her core constituency," Fields said. "Who is she to say that about us? The arrogance she has shown to people like us is demeaning."

Standing next to Fields were two Republicans, Keith York and Edward Krajewski.

"All my life I have been a Republican," York said. "I have never voted Democrat in my life. It has gotten to the point where a lot of Republicans have no idea of what is going on. They are just voting Republican because they think Democrats are going to take away their guns or raise their taxes. In the last election I voted for Bush because of that."

York said he was "sick and tired" of the billions being spent in Iraq, and frustrated that he -- a businessman -- was trapped with his current health care because his wife was ill.

"Here we are getting nowhere," he said. When asked what he thought of Clinton, York replied, "Don't tell me you know how the little guy feels when you made $109 million." That figure is the Clinton's earnings in their recently released federal tax returns.

York said he did not change his party registration in time to vote in the Democratic primary, although he was videotaping Obama's speech. However, his friend, Edward Krajewski, said he did register as a Democrat.

"I am from Pennsylvania. I am a typical white male. I am bitter," Krajewski said, referring to remarks made by Obama at a recent California fundraiser to characterize some Pennsylvania voters that has drawn much criticism. When asked if he was being serious, he said, "Yeah, I am. I am bitter about the economy, and the war in Iraq has a lot to do with our economy, with taking half a trillion dollars, when Bush said it would be 80 billion and we'd get out."

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Steven Rosenfeld is a senior fellow at Alternet.org and co-author of "What Happened in Ohio: A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election," with Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman (The New Press, 2006).

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