ARVADA — Trina Green said she worries about her lack of health insurance and the price of groceries. On her bookkeeper’s salary, she needs cheaper gas to shuttle her baby and her 7-year-old around. She is concerned about the quality of her son’s school and the war in Iraq.
And vice presidential pick Sarah Palin is making her take a second look at voting for John McCain.
“She’s not soured; she’s not influenced yet,” said Green, a registered independent in Jefferson County, a key battlefield where there is a roughly equal measure of independent voters compared with Republicans and Democrats. “She’s young, she’s vital. You can see the life coming out of her. Our schools need help. Maybe because she’s a young mom, she’ll have some ideas about that.”
Though Green says she is still undecided about her vote in November, her growing affinity for the McCain-Palin ticket — attributed solely to Palin — means that McCain’s effort to target “Wal-Mart moms” may be working.
Many of the undecided voters here are moderate, working, suburban women who say they like Palin because, at least on the surface, she seems to be one of them.
“She has the same problems and the same issues that everyone else does,” said Jessie Rember, an Arvada mother of two, and a German professor.
The Republican vice presidential nominee is stopping here Monday morning for a rally at the Westernaires Arena. Interest in Palin’s appearance — her second in Colorado in nine days, but first solo — was so strong that the event was moved to the larger venue.
Political observers say these fiercely independent voters, whose names tend to morph each election cycle from “soccer moms” to “security moms,” will be who chooses the presidential winner this fall.
“People have realized that we can’t lump all women voters together,” said Karrin Anderson, a professor at Colorado State University. “This group and the Latino voters are going to be key.”
At a Republican National Committee meeting in New Mexico in April, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said the demographic would be a top target this election season.
“They shop at Wal-Mart,” Davis told the Albuquerque Journal. “They don’t have expensive tastes. They are suburban by nature.”
Obama campaign reaches out
The power of this voter group hasn’t gone by the Barack Obama campaign either.
They are reaching out, in large part, with a message of fixing the economy. Michelle Obama and other surrogates have held a series of economic roundtables with women in Colorado and other battleground states.
Last week, the campaign held a forum on women’s issues in Jefferson County with state Rep. Debbie Benefield. State Treasurer Cary Kennedy held a pay equity forum in Loveland recently, and Obama officials say they have held several women-to-women phone banks across the state.
“Women are realizing just how much is at stake in this election and just how much they have to lose if the McCain-Palin ticket is successful in November,” said Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Mueller.
Yet for the moment, McCain, through Palin, is making the biggest strides.
In a Washington Post-ABC News survey last week, McCain’s camp picked up a 20 percentage point boost among white women after the Republican National Convention, where Palin made her coming-out speech.
Palin, the political leader, is still largely unknown. In her two weeks in the national spotlight, she has been largely shielded from probing questions about how she would lead. She has granted only one media interview. Her few stump speeches have been closely hued to McCain’s, calling for energy independence and change in Washington.
What voters mostly know about the Alaska governor is that she was a PTA president and hockey mom, that she has five children, married her high school sweetheart and feeds her kids macaroni and cheese.
Many pundits predicted that her “normalcy sheen” would be punctured with more exposure. But so far, that image is lasting.
“If they (the McCain campaign) handle her right, this could last quite a while,” said Bonnie Dow, associate professor of communication studies at Vanderbilt University. “What people know about her is extremely limited.”
Widespread indecision
Here in Jefferson County, undecided voters are everywhere: taking their kids to hockey practice, sitting on barstools in Edgewater, shopping in Arvada’s Old Towne.
They are quick to share the pros and cons of each candidate: Barack Obama seems smart, but he may raise my taxes. I don’t know enough about him. I like McCain but don’t like his early stance on the war. What’s his economic plan? Sarah Palin seems smart, but is she ready to be president?
Maro Dimmer is a registered Democrat still stung by Hillary Rodham Clinton’s loss in the primaries. The owner of a German bakery, Dimmer said she has yet to make up her mind but likes the energy Palin brings to McCain’s ticket.
“I think she’s dynamic; it makes me more likely to vote for the campaign,” Dimmer said, noting she wouldn’t vote for Palin just because she is a woman but admires her intelligence. “Palin is not experienced the same way Obama isn’t experienced in international politics.”
Conifer resident Peggy Myers said in her years of voting, this is the first election she hasn’t known what to do. She admires both candidates but called Palin a female George W. Bush. Palin is not entering into her decision, though, because she is running for vice president.
“I’m looking at the two people who would be president,” she said, “and I think both men are decent and have a goal of uniting the country.”
Political scientist Rebecca Deen says both campaigns would do well keeping it positive for undecided and moderate voters, who are easily off put by negative campaigning. This means that, without a lot of substantive information on Palin, Obama’s camp would do well avoiding attacks on her.
“These folks are not necessarily swayed by the mud attacks,” said Deen, a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington. “I think once we get to the debates and there’s real substance, people will start making up their minds.”
Danielle Breck, a registered Republican, said she resents Palin because she always seems to be on the attack for McCain. The past two weeks of news coverage have moved the 32-year-old waitress closer to voting for Obama.
“She brings energy to the ticket, but it’s the wrong kind of energy,” Breck said, noting she’s still undecided. “She is a full supporter of being at home and taking care of her family, but what is she doing? What is she saying? I need more substance.”
Allison Sherry: 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com
Political visits
Palin kicks off in Colorado.
Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin was scheduled to arrive in Denver late Saturday, kicking off a flurry of national political appearances.
After a “down day,” Palin will hold a Monday morning rally at the Westernaires Arena at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds. The doors open at 7 a.m. for the 9 a.m. event, and GOP officials say no more free tickets are available.
Obama in Colorado too.
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama opens a two-day Colorado trip with two Monday events: one in the morning at the Cross Orchards Living History Farm in Grand Junction and one at 4:30 p.m. at the Colorado State Fairgrounds in Pueblo.
Then, on Tuesday morning, Obama will appear at Lockridge Arena at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. Free tickets for that event are available beginning at 10 a.m. today at metro-area Obama campaign offices.
