WSJ: Minnesota Gets Into Swing of Things

[question everything]

Minnesota Gets Into Swing of Things
Bush Touts Health Care, Values in Visits To Former Democratic Mainstay Turned Tossup

By GREG HITT
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 27, 2004; Page A4

ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- A new reality is taking root in the old stomping grounds of populist icons Hubert Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy: Minnesota, once a reliably Democratic state, is now up for grabs in the race for the White House.

Minnesota's shift underscores an important dynamic shaping this year's campaign. The keenest battles between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat John Kerry are taking place in only a dozen or so states. Some, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, are longtime election swing states. But the last time Minnesota voted Republican in a presidential race was for Richard Nixon in 1972. "This isn't your father's Minnesota," says Republican Vin Weber, a former congressman who has toiled to broaden his party's reach in the state.

What defines a swing state shifts over time as a state's economy and demographics evolve, and as national forces influence voter attitudes. The transformation afoot in Minnesota is playing out in a handful of other states as well. Voters in Wisconsin and Iowa, two rural states that went Democratic in 2000, are proving to be open to Mr. Bush's heavily patriotic campaign themes. Meanwhile, Democrats see hope in Nevada, where discontent brews over a nuclear-waste dump, and in New Hampshire, where economic anxiety runs high. Both were Bush states in 2000.

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In Minnesota, political undercurrents developing over much of the past decade give Bush allies hope. Suburban sprawl around Minneapolis and St. Paul has created a bloc of mostly middle-class voters with pocketbook concerns and far less loyalty to Minnesota's tradition of progressive public consciousness. The state's economy, with a 4.8% jobless rate, has outperformed the rest of the nation. And social issues such as abortion and gay marriage have taken on greater importance among the rural and blue-collar voters who once were bedrock Democrats.

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Clearly, the Bush campaign is pushing to win Minnesota. The president opened his headquarters here early in April, and more than 200 paid staffers are on the ground, working either for the Bush campaign or the Republican Party. Four years ago, the Bush campaign relied on a nearly all-volunteer team, recalls U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, who ran Mr. Bush's Minnesota campaign in 2000. Mr. Bush already has made six campaign forays into the state, with more to come as polls show the president running neck and neck there with Mr. Kerry.

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Write to Greg Hitt at [e-mail]

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http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109624298670028417,00.html