http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061008/ap_on_el_ge/married_moms
Moms and GOP: No longer happy together
By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press WriterSun Oct 8, 6:53 PM ET
After winning over moms in back-to-back elections, Republicans have
lost their advantage among married women with children this year.
The Republican Party has seen the support of people like Jeannette
Hopkins evaporate.
A 30-year-old married mother of two and a Republican, Hopkins voted for
President Bush in 2004. But she says she probably will support the
Democrat in her congressional district this fall "because of the way
that everything's been handled" with the GOP in charge of Congress and
Bush in the White House.
"We're in a really scary place right now," Hopkins said recently. She
vented about what she called the gone-on-too-long Iraq war, a sluggish
economy, the bungled Hurricane Katrina response and a continuing
terrorism threat.
She blamed Republicans as she hustled down an alley to the office she
manages in this Louisville, Ky., suburb.
Votes like hers could decide which party controls the House and Senate
after the Nov. 7 vote.
Poll results and interviews with political analysts indicate the GOP
has lost ground with a voting group that helped the party keep hold of
Congress and the White House in 2002 and 2004. Married moms have become
a volatile swing group just as Democrats need to gain 15 GOP-held House
seats and six in the Senate to win control of Capitol Hill.
An Associated Press-Ipsos poll this month found that support is now
evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans among married women
with children in the house. Republicans won this voting group by 18
percentage points in 2002 and Bush won it by 14 percentage points in
2004.
The shift among married moms was reflected in the anxiety-laden voices
of several in the Ohio River Valley, a conservative region home to
several competitive House races.
"People have no money. The economy is not going well," said Michele
Huber, 29. A married mother of three, she gave the country a "poor to
fair" rating as she speed-walked in a suburban Cincinnati park with one
of her children, a niece and a nephew in tow.
A Republican, she voted for Bush in 2004. She said she was not sure
whether she would again if she had the chance or whether she would vote
with her party next month - a sentiment echoed by others.
___
For years, the GOP has held a slight advantage with this group of
voters. Republicans made additional gains leading up to and through the
2000 presidential election, in part because, according to analysts and
exit polls, married moms were attracted to Bush's emphasis on social
conservatism and had a general fondness for the man himself.
In the 2002 congressional elections, more than half of married moms
sided with Republicans while only 35 percent voted with Democrats. Two
years later, in a presidential election year, married moms preferred
Bush over Democratic Sen. John Kerry by 56 percent to 42 percent.
That GOP advantage has evaporated.
In the AP-Ipsos poll, married women with children split evenly on the
question of whether they would vote for or lean toward the Democratic
or Republican candidate in their congressional district.
The frustration in this group of voters is a reflection of the broader
population, now down on the president and Congress as the unpopular
Iraq war drags on and economic growth has slowed.
"Married moms, like Americans in other demographic groups, are much
more critical of President Bush, are angry at Washington, are concerned
about Iraq and are worried about many other things," said Andrew Kohut.
He is director of the Pew Research Center, an independent public
opinion organization that also found married moms breaking even.
The AP-Ipsos poll showed that married moms care as much about health
care and the economy as they do about terrorism. The situation in Iraq
is a greater concern than taxes, Social Security and gas prices. They
tend to believe that Democrats would handle Iraq and the economy better
than Republicans....
___
Outside a Wal-Mart in Fort Wright, Ky., two moms hauled their kids out
of their minivans. One of the women voted for Bush. One did not.
Neither was pleased with the direction of the country.
"We're not happy," said Christy Blaker, 32, as she loaded a
McDonald's-munching Emily, 4, and Becca, 18 months, into a shopping
cart. A self-described independent, the stay-at-home mom and her
husband, who replaces the breaks on train wheels, did not back Bush in
2004. She says she probably will not support Republicans next month.
The war unnerves and conflicts her. She frets about "horrible" gas
prices and bemoans an economy in which inflation seems to rise higher
than wages. If life does not improve, she said she may have to get a
part-time job.
Across the parking lot, another stay-at-home mom, Tina Wagner, 31,
voiced similar fears while two of her three children, Grace, 4, and
Faith, 15 months, fidgeted. Hope, 6, was in school.
A Republican, Wagner voted for Bush in 2004 but expressed
disappointment about his job performance in the two years since.
"He's made some good decisions but I also think he's made some bad,"
she said, lamenting Bush's justification for going to war in Iraq. "I
feel like he rushed into it."
She, too, complained about gas prices, job losses, health care costs
and lack of coverage. "It keeps getting worse and worse," said Wagner,
whose husband's textbook sales job supports the family.
This fall, Wagner said she would consider voting for a Democrat....
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