White men could serve as 2010 election’s wildcard

Poll finds more men blame Congress for state’s woes, favor cutting spending.

Men are fueling the fire for GOP

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By Reginald Fields, The (Cleveland)  Plain Dealer Updated 1:43 AM Wednesday, September 29, 2010

While Ohio’s race for governor appears close, past voting patterns indicate that the majority of black voters — men or women — will side with the Democratic candidate and most white men will choose the Republican.

But there is a wildcard this year, said Karen Beckwith, chairwoman of the political science department at Case Western Reserve University.

She said the intensity with which white men are engaged and voting will be key. Another important component , she said, will be the party line split among white female voters.

“The big difference seems to be among white voters,” Beckwith said. “All things equal, women are more likely to vote for the Democratic candidates than men.”

Two years ago, Barack Obama, won the 2008 Presidential election on the strength of black voters and women. This year the story could be white men.

Beckwith, whose research interests include gender and politics, said women tend to be concerned with social issues such as education, healthcare and jobs while male voters focus in more on what she called individual economics — personal taxes and income, for example.

In the Dayton Daily News/Ohio Newspaper Poll, women were more likely to see Ohio as a good or excellent place to live, and a higher percentage of women than men said they would choose to live here even if they could move elsewhere. In a key difference in how they see the state’s economic situation, however, 18 percent of men said the biggest reason they would move is because of high taxes in Ohio. Just 2 percent of women gave that answer.

Men also supported cutting government spending to solve Ohio’s budget woes, while women preferred some combination of cuts and higher taxes.

And more men blamed Congress for the state’s economic woes, while more women blamed Wall Street.

“How men and women voters will respond will depend on how the candidates are campaigning,” Beckwith said. “We still have more than a month to go with campaigning. How they campaign will heighten these issues.”

Herb Asher, political science professor at Ohio State University, said political observers for years have tried to explain the gender gap to no avail.

“In the last couple of decades there has been the phenomena of the gender gap with women more supportive of Democrats and men of Republicans,” Asher said, adding that there is no agreed upon reason for it or predicting how it might impact an election.

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