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StumbleuponOHIO NEWSPAPER POLL
Undecided voters hold key in Ohio, poll finds
Cross-section of Ohioans tell which presidential candidate they support and why
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Friday, September 19, 2008
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Kim Watkins of Preble County says she has always voted Democratic but currently backs Ralph Nader. Staff photo by Lisa Powell
Lisa Rose of Enon supports Obama, but wanted him to choose Hillary Clinton as his running mate. Staff photo by Bill Lackey
Gayle Goodrich of Kettering voted for Obama in the primary and will stick with him in November. Staff photo by Lisa Powell
Alyce Earl Jenkins of Yellow Springs said she will vote for Obama. This year was the first time she's asked for a Democratic ballot in a primary. Staff photo by Chris Stewart
William Bates of West Elkton supports McCain because he fears Obama would increase 'giveaway programs.' Staff photo by Lisa PowellCOLUMBUS — Marvelene Kizer, 75, of Champaign County, has been a registered Republican her whole life but Kizer isn't ready to cast her vote in November for John McCain.
Meanwhile, Kim Watkins, 44, of Preble County, said she has "never voted other than Democrat." That could change this year. Right now Watkins backs consumer crusader Ralph Nader for president.
Voters like Kizer and Watkins hold the key to whether Republican McCain or Democrat Barack Obama captures Ohio's 20 electoral votes, a crucial step to winning the White House.
McCain led Obama 48-42 among likely voters in a new Dayton Daily News /Ohio Newspaper Poll, but support for both candidates remains soft — 5 percent are undecided and nearly one out of five voters say they may change their mind.
Kizer and Watkins show the trend.
"I've always been registered as a Republican but that's not a sign I always vote that way," said retiree Kizer of Concord Twp., who's undecided so far.
She wants the next president to "bring the boys home from overseas" and keep jobs here rather than "shipping them overseas."
McCain needs a "mind of his own," rather than always going along with President Bush so much, Kizer said.
Watkins, 44, who lives just outside West Alexandria, voted for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary and would be for Obama now if he had picked Clinton for his running mate. "I like everything about her," Watkins, a housewife whose husband is a truck driver, said of Clinton.
But Obama picked Sen. Joe Biden instead, and now Watkins worries about Obama's former pastor in Chicago, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, with whom Obama has broken ties.
"There's a lot of bigotry, especially when it comes to white people," she said of Wright. "He downright hates them."
Lately, Obama has been "standing up for himself" and that's good, she said.
Several poll respondents said they are leaning toward one candidate but are less than firm.
Lisa Rose is supporting Obama right now but could change her mind. Like Watkins, she wanted Obama to pick Clinton as his running mate.
Rose, 34, a pre-school teacher from Enon in Clark County, wants to see the presidential debates before firming up her vote. Obama relates better than McCain to her situation as a middle-class person but needs to be "more clear on his ideas," she said.
McCain still could get her vote, she said. "He is very decisive. That is a good quality about him." But, she added, "He doesn't seem that he can relate to every day problems."
A majority of the poll respondents said they have made up their mind. Alyce Earl Jenkins, a 72-year-old retiree from Yellow Springs is one of them.
Jenkins is an unlikely supporter of Obama. Until voting for Clinton in the Democratic primary, Jenkins hadn't asked for a Democratic ballot in 50 years. But, said Jenkins, "It was no problem for me to move over to Obama. I had made up my mind I was not going to support the Republican ticket."
Jenkins didn't like the Republican-backed prescription drug plan for Medicare and thought Bush was too quick to declare war on Iraq.
Gayle Goodrich, 60, a retired accountant in Kettering, backed Obama in the primary and will vote for him in the general election. "I think our economy, the basic elements of our government are broken," she said. ""We're on a very dangerous slippery slope."
But West Elkton Mayor William Bates, another poll respondent, is behind McCain "big time." Bates backs McCain's plans to cut government spending and worries that if Obama is elected "the giveaway programs, (of) which there are too many, will increase and I don't like that."
He also likes Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as McCain's running mate.
"Her talk is strong and I kind of like her .....her bluntness," he said. He prefers Palin to the "old political rug rats."
Contact this reporter at (614) 224-1608 or whershey@DaytonDailyNews.com.
