By Malavika Jagannathan
The Green Bay Press Gazette

Democrats courting state's female voters

Marital status found to have bigger impact on voting

Even with a viable female candidate in play, there's no evidence to show that women stick to their own — perhaps the reason both Democratic candidates are courting female voters in Wisconsin prior to Tuesday's primary.

"Women are slightly more likely to vote for women candidates than are men, but the gender affinity is not an overwhelming effect," said Kathleen Dolan, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee who studies voting and female candidates. "People vote for women candidates for the same reason they vote for men."

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton leading by 10 points among potential women voters in Wisconsin. Overall, the poll shows Sen. Barack Obama with a narrow four-point advantage over Clinton, although there's a significant difference between older and younger voters.

Early in the primary season Clinton won an overwhelming percentage of the female vote in most states, but Obama edged Clinton out among women in the three so-called Potomac primaries last week. He won nearly 60 percent of the women's vote in Maryland and Virginia.

Talk about women voters is generally limited to the Democratic party because Clinton is in the race and women tend to vote Democratic on the whole, Dolan said.

"There's a lot of focus on Hillary Clinton, obviously, but you've got the sense in the Obama campaign that they're going to fight for women's votes," Dolan said. The focus on women from Republicans may come later in the general election.

Ann Lewis, Clinton's senior campaign adviser fielded questions for a campaign stop Friday in Green Bay tailored toward women voters.

"Politics is about the bottom-line, and the majority of voters are women," she said.

But she declined to say whether more women are attracted to Clinton's message because she is a woman, saying that gender has not been a topic of conversation on the campaign trail.

"What I hear from women is that 'she is the most qualified candidate. She's got the record on issues I care about. She really will be able to deliver what's important to me,'" Lewis said.

For Teri Schneider, a Clinton supporter, health care and education are among her main concerns this election.

"She has the experience," said Schneider, a 47-year-old self-employed, single mother from Green Bay, who is uninsured and said she struggles to pay her bills.

Linda Gibbs, a 51-year-old Green Bay resident who is supporting Obama, said she had considered Clinton because "it'd be nice to see a woman in the White House," but was turned off by her attitude and approach.

"I voted for Bill Clinton twice… but Hillary just does not move me," Gibbs said.

But elections aren't won or lost by women voters alone. In the past two presidential elections, women favored John Kerry and Al Gore, both of whom lost to George W. Bush.

In fact, marital status has a bigger impact on voting, part of the reason a national group is targeting unmarried women in Wisconsin through mailings to get them to the polls on Tuesday.

"People are talking about the gender gap … but there's actually a marriage gap," said Sarah Johnson, communications director for the Washington, D.C.-based Women's Voices, Women's Votes. "Unmarried women are less likely to register and vote than married women."