Monday, February 21, 2000
McCain banking on independents
Ohio voters can pick their ballot
BY HOWARD WILKINSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
If John McCain is to win Ohio's March 7 Republican presidential primary, he is going to need people like Marge Muse of Dent.
The 74-year-old voter never misses a general election. But in primary elections, she said she often takes an “issues only” ballot, which makes her, under Ohio's way of doing things, an independent.
This year, she plans to go to her polling place at First Baptist Church in Dent and ask for a Republican ballot so she can vote for Mr. McCain.
“He seems like a forthright man, and we need somebody like that in the White House,” Mrs. Muse said. “I may be wrong, but that's the way I feel.”
The McCain campaign, which has been depending on independents and Democrats to cross over and vote in the Republican primary in early primary states like New Hampshire and South Carolina, is hoping the same will hold true in Ohio, the third largest of the 11 states holding primaries on March 7.
In New Hampshire, Mr. McCain won with 49 percent of the vote to 31 percent for Texas Gov. George W. Bush. Four out of 10 voters in the New Hampshire GOP primary were independents, according to exit polls, and the majority of them went for Mr. McCain.
Saturday, in South Carolina,
the McCain strategy did not work.
Mr. McCain's campaign was counting on a larger-than-normal turnout In South Carolina. It happened, but most of the extra voters were not independents or Democrats but Republicans, and most of them went for Mr. Bush, giving the Texas governor a win with 52 percent. Mr. McCain finished with 42 percent.
Organizers of the McCain campaign in Ohio say they are targeting bedrock, hard-core Republican primary voters, but they are doing nothing to discourage others to pick up a GOP ballot on election day.
In Ohio, voters don't have to declare a party preference when they register to vote. That happens when voters show up at the polls on primary election day, where they can request a party ballot or an “issues only” ballot.
Under Ohio law, if a voter voted in the Democratic primary in 1998 and wants to vote Republican on March 7, the voter will have to sign an affidavit at the polling place saying he or she “adheres to the principles” of the party.
Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio's chief elections officer, said his office and county boards of elections are getting “record numbers” of calls from people asking to be mailed partisan absentee ballots, mostly for the Republican primary. Many of the calls are from independents. No specific numbers were available.
“My sense is that these people are going to weigh in on this primary in a pretty big way,” Mr. Blackwell said.
Bob Bennett, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, said he doubts that independents and Democrats will have much of an impact on the upcoming contest between Mr. McCain and Mr. Bush in Ohio.
“Independents are going to be encouraged by the candidates to choose one party or the other,” Mr. Bennett said. “Independents who lean to Republicans will vote Republican; and independents who lean to Democrats will vote Democrat.
“We have no indication at all that independents who vote in the Republican primary are going to break towards one candidate or the other,” Mr. Bennett said.
The McCain campaign will face a Bush operation in Ohio where most of the Republican party leadership, from Gov. Bob Taft on down, has endorsed the Texas governor. Polls show Mr. Bush leading Mr. McCain.
Mark Policinski of Montgomery, a former Reagan administration official, is organizing volunteer workers for the McCain campaign in southwest Ohio and said the response has been “amazing.”
“But most of the people who call or send me e-mail wanting to get involved are Republicans,"' Mr. Policinski said.
McCain volunteers locally are being asked to call those voters and urge them to support Mr. McCain in the March 7 primary. The script the volunteers use tells the voters to make sure they ask for a Republican ballot at the polls.
Many of those on the voter lists being used by McCain volunteers are people who took “issues only” ballots in the 1998 primary election. One of them is 79-year-old Vernon Gessendorf of Westwood.
“I don't know what I'm going to do in this election,” Mr. Gessendorf said. “I guess I am leaning towards McCain, though.”
Ben Glober of Roselawn, who usually votes “issues only” in primary elections, said he is “fed up with the whole business. Of the major candidates out there, I don't think one is capable.”
Mr. Glober said he would probably ask for an “issues only” ballot once again.
Mary Stem of Anderson Township, who voted “issues only” in 1998, said it is a “toss-up” as to whether she would take a Republican or Democratic ballot this year.
“I probably won't make up my mind until closer to the election,” Mrs. Stem said.
Mrs. Muse said the decision to vote in a Republican primary this year has to do with the candidate, not the party.
“I'm pretty independent,” she said. “I'm voting for somebody I want to see as president, not a political party.”
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