Sundays Newspapers from around Pennsylvania

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Sun Apr-20-08 11:08 AM
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Sundays Newspapers from around Pennsylvania

Read their articles here:
http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/220152

Read their articles here:
http://www.timesonline.com/news/

Read their articles here:
http://www.post-gazette.com/

Poll shows candidates' contrasting strengths
Sunday, April 20, 2008
By James O'Toole, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
East-west, old-young, black-white, Protestant-Catholic -- those are some of the marked and familiar divisions among Pennsylvania Democrats as they approach the state's crucial primary Tuesday

But alleys and ammo provided guides to political affinities as well.

A new poll of the state shows a close race and one that reflects similar divisions to those that have been recorded in previous stops on the Democrats' bumpy journey toward their Denver convention. In polling done Thursday and Friday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton held a narrow overall lead over her Democratic rival, but their contrasting regional and demographic strengths suggested that a close race could turn on the targeted turnout efforts of each of the campaigns.

Mrs. Clinton had the support of 48 percent of those surveyed compared to 43 percent for Mr. Obama. As in many earlier states, Mrs. Clinton showed particular strength among older voters -- a group that can be counted on to show up at the polls -- Western Pennsylvanians, Catholics, women and white voters.

Thirty-eight percent of the respondents said they owned a gun, and those voters were clinging to the Clinton candidacy by a margin of 53 percent to 28 percent. Mr. Obama, however, won a majority among non-gun owners, 52 percent to 45 percent.

While Mr. Obama is fairly abstemious himself, he managed to tie Mrs. Clinton among beer drinkers -- 44 percent each. Non-beer drinkers, on the other hand, supported Mrs. Clinton, 50 percent to 43 percent.

The Pennsylvania results echo a gender gap that has recurred throughout the nomination battle. Mrs. Clinton led among women, 51 percent to 44 percent. Mr. Obama had a smaller advantage among male voters, 47 percent to 44 percent. Other strengths for the national front-runner were black voters, younger voters, Protestants and residents of the southeastern corner of the state.

Blacks favored Mr. Obama by the overwhelming margin of 83 percent to 10 percent. White voters broke almost two-to-one for Mrs. Clinton -- 58 percent to 33 percent.

Catholics were again a strength for Mrs. Clinton as they had been in earlier states such as Ohio. They favored her by a margin of 63 percent to 30 percent. Protestants went in the other direction, favoring Mr. Obama 60 percent to 31 percent.

Read their articles here:
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19501032&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=6

Historically, Pennsylvania voters routinely elect and re-elect candidates they are most familiar with. In this case, they are most familiar with Mrs. Clinton, and she is the odds favorite to win the presidential primary election here Tuesday.

To swipe Pennsylvania from the favored Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama must receive big turnout among southeast and younger voters, said Christopher Borick, Ph.D., the director of the polling institute at Muhlenberg College.

“For him to win outright, he needs to have things break almost perfectly here,” Dr. Borick said. “He’s got to pitch a perfect game here in Pennsylvania.”

Old vs. new

Mrs. Clinton does far better than Mr. Obama among the Democratic voting bloc that has dominated the state’s political thinking — voters 45 and older, who make up almost 60 percent of Democrats, according to state voter registration data.

By the same margin, younger voters — 44 and under — favor Mr. Obama, according to the Quinnipiac poll.

“He has vision that is a worldview, and he thinks of the common man,” Bernard Reviere, a 38-year-old Pittsburgh construction worker, said while waiting for Mr. Obama to speak in his city. “I think it’s just time that we need something completely different. ... He’s genuine. You can tell that. I just think that it’s something that you connect with people on a certain level and I think he transcends gender, race and all sorts of politics. It’s evident and I think it’s something that we need in the 21st century. It’s like a new type of politician.”

But those younger voters comprise only about 40 percent of all Democratic voters, according to registration statistics. And past studies show the young vote less often.

The math that pushes Mrs. Clinton to victory could be as simple as that.

It also could get complicated, as a new trend threatens to undermine the old math and hand Mr. Obama an upset victory: the emergence of younger voters.

More than 315,000 new voters either registered as Democrats or switched to the party since Jan. 1. And about three in five Democrats who registered in the last six months say they plan to vote for Mr. Obama, according to a poll sponsored by Franklin & Marshall College, Times-Shamrock Newspapers and other media outlets.

Read their articles here:
http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080420_The_big_switch__Democrats_steadily_gaining_in_region.html

In the Eismann family alone, the Democratic Party can count three new registered voters.
Or maybe it's four.

Virginia Eismann, a homemaker whose husband runs a wood-flooring business, said she wasn't sure whether their younger son, a 21-year-old college student, submitted his voter form in time.

If he did, "then there's one more of us," she said.

The Eismanns, of the Doylestown area, are among the tidal wave of people in the five-county Philadelphia region - former Republicans, former independents, former nonvoters - who registered as Democrats to vote in Tuesday's primary. And the majority of these newly registered voters appear to support Sen. Barack Obama, according to a recent poll.

The headlines are well-known: For the first time in decades, Democrats outnumber Republicans in Montgomery and Bucks Counties. And Democrats and independents, grouped together, now outnumber Republicans in the two remaining suburban counties: Chester and Delaware.

But the significance of the Democratic gains goes far deeper.

A close analysis of state voter-registration data from April 6 compared with April 2007 shows just how sweeping the changes are.

Democrats increased their party enrollment in 99 percent of the zip codes in the region, while the number of Republicans declined in 92 percent of zip codes.

Read their articles here:

http://www.phillyburbs.com/

Read their articles here
http://www.tribdem.com/