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Democratic moorings loose along the Ohio River

WHEELING, West Virginia (CNN) -- Beginning north of Pittsburgh, the mighty Ohio river eventually courses down through four states, past struggling steel factories and the towns linked to them.

Those locations -- in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky -- are often less prosperous than other parts of the states and the country as a whole. And they contribute 57 votes to an electoral tide that's not necessarily flowing one way or the other.

Chuck Friend  

At Hamilton Kettles in Weirton, West Virginia, non-union workers from three neighboring states prefer Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush. The boss, Chuck Friend, is from West Virginia.

"I think people are ready for some solid integrity," says Friend.

It's a refrain frequently heard in this traditionally Democratic stronghold, where many voters share conservative values and the belief that Clinton administration scandals have rubbed off on Democratic nominee Vice President Al Gore.

To many, Bush simply appears as a more likeable candidate

.

Ed Henderson, a Hamilton production manager who lives in Ohio, says he likes the way the Texas governor talks -- "the way he treats people."

"There's no certain reason why. I just like his personality," Henderson said.

Ed Henderson  

Although three generations of his family have always voted for Democrats, Pennsylvania resident Chris Powell is also vowing to vote for Bush.

"From what I've picked up so far Gore's is getting carried away with gun control, but Bush is just saying to enforce the laws we already have," he says.

Others in the Ohio Valley are staying true to their Democratic roots.

Union leader Bill Sterner says his utility workers think Bush's economic plan will endanger the budget surplus and potentially wreck the nation's prosperity -- while providing aid and comfort to big corporations and wealthy Americans.

"From a worker's standpoint -- especially from a union worker's standpoint -- there's a clear, clear difference in where we'll be four or eight years from now if George Bush gets elected," he says.

Sterner
Bill Sterner  

Tell that to Mark Gyptis, president of the independent steelworker's union in Weirton. Local union members say that Bill Clinton and Al Gore's 1992 campaign pledge to halt the dumping of cheap Asian steel in U.S. markets was a lie that cost the area 10,000 jobs.

"We're strongly behind Pat Buchanan," Gyptis says.

While it's clear that some union workers will be voicing their frustrations at the polls, no single issue appears to be driving the vote across the entire Ohio Valley.

"On domestic issues, while there are distinct differences, they have really not gone out of their way to tell how those differences are going to affect the people of this region," says Ned Rugeley, a political science professor at Wheeling Jesuit University. "As a result of that, people are almost left to personalities."

The working class and blue-collar folks who inhabit the region are the sort of voters that Ronald Reagan tore from their traditionally Democratic moorings during the 1980s.

Those moorings are loose again. Although Kentucky appears to be solidly behind Bush, the electoral outcome in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia could determine which candidate sinks or swims come November.

 
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THE STATES
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Monday, October 16, 2000


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