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Even in a swing state, views are hardened
The view farther out Route 73
Outside the city, the landscape changes: Urban neighborhoods quickly give way to leafy suburbs with expensive antique houses. Route 73, which cuts through the 13th district, runs past charming villages like Blue Bell, featuring upscale restaurants with names like Fuzion, and an assortment of antique shops and pet-grooming stores. Employers here include pharmaceutical companies like Merck and Wyeth, and there's a burgeoning high-tech industry.
At the outer reaches of the district, the scenery becomes rural Mennonite country. Mixed with the farms, however, is a growing number of new developments: clusters of big, identical houses, with three-car garages and fake stone siding - luring upwardly mobile families with the promise of more house for their money.
But while the new scenery brings some shifts in political views and priorities, the partisan loyalties of the voters are no less fierce. Some voters, particularly in the closer-in suburbs, stake out moderate positions, and a few even offer tempered criticism of their own party. Significantly, many say their vote is driven more by opposition to the other side's candidate than enthusiasm for their own - a reflection, perhaps, of the region's steady diet of negative advertising.
While Democrats express strong distaste for Bush, many also admit to lukewarm feelings for Kerry, or say they don't know much about him. Republicans say they want no part of the Massachusetts senator, but several also admit they don't approve of everything the president has done.
To some extent, residents note, the area's wealth, which once tied it securely to the Republican Party, also enables the adoption of certain liberal stances. It's the kind of place where "people can afford to be progressive," explains Eric Podietz, noting that his town of Upper Dublin has an active - albeit expensive - recycling program.
The town of Ambler offers a coffee house and an art theater that is currently showing "Fahrenheit 9/11." But, perhaps in a nod to the mix of partisan views, the theater also offers "rebuttal papers," an assortment of positive and negative articles about the movie, for its patrons.
Mr. Podietz, who just purchased tickets to "Fahrenheit," is a Democrat who says he's never voted Republican. When it comes to Bush, he says unequivocally "it's time for him to go," citing his "overly simplistic notions," his "arrogance," and the way he "favors business." But he's not thrilled with Kerry either, seeing him as "kind of business as usual," though he does like that Kerry is a decorated war veteran.
Many voters here readily admit that they have much stronger feelings about this presidential election than in the past. And many say that their partisan fealty is primarily at the presidential level. They show a willingness to cross party lines in local and state elections.
Coming out of a late afternoon showing of "Fahrenheit," Jane Spigel declares she'd "vote for Mickey Mouse" over Bush in the upcoming election. Ms. Spigel is adamantly opposed to the Iraq war and what she sees as the unnecessary loss of innocent lives. A full-time student in elementary education, she admits she doesn't necessarily think Kerry is the "best man for the job" - indeed she has "a lot of respect" for Ralph Nader. But getting Bush out is her "No. 1," and she plans to volunteer for the Kerry campaign this summer.
Spigel may oppose Bush, but she doesn't feel the same about all Republicans. Her local state representative, she says, is a Republican and was "extremely helpful" with an insurance problem. "I'd definitely vote for her," she says. At the national level, she points to John McCain as a Republican she "would vote for."
Even more striking, she recently made a pilgrimage to Washington to view Ronald Reagan's casket - catching the 11:30 p.m. train out of 30th Street Station, and waiting for more than seven hours in a line "that made Disney look like nothing," to go through the Capitol Rotunda and pay her respects.
"Whether or not I agreed with all his policies, he was president of the United States," she says. "It was an honor to pay respect to him."
Typically, the most persuadable group of voters in these types of suburbs are women. They are the so-called "soccer moms," later dubbed "security moms," who tend to be socially moderate but fiscally conservative, who worry about terrorism but also about education. Most are registered Republicans, but many also voted for Clinton and Gore.
For many, it's the 'anti' election
Yet this time around, almost no one seems inclined to cross party lines. Watching her four kids navigate the "starship" ride at a carnival at the Wissahickon High School near Ambler, Republican Karen Williams describes her vote as "more anti-Kerry than pro-Bush." Kerry "waffles a lot," she says. But while Bush has "done some good," she also thinks "the country's being distracted a lot by Iraq."
Initially she favored the war - "the intent was good," she says. But lately she's concluded, "it just can't be implemented. It's turning into a mini-Vietnam. You can't pull out, and there's never a good time to leave."
Ms. Williams grew up in this area and came back to raise her own family here. "It's a very solid place," says the stay-at-home mom. Her husband works for a big pharmaceutical company - "hence, Republican," she jokes. She's always voted with the GOP, and says she will stick with the president this fall.
Standing with Williams, Diane Jeckovich says she too will vote for Bush because "he's safer for business," but adds: "not that I agree with everything that's happened." She supports the war in Iraq, but thinks "there were probably a lot of mistakes made," and "it's a shame it's dragged on this long."
Like Williams, Ms. Jeckovich typically votes Republican, but notes that she supports abortion rights and stem-cell research. In 1996, she voted for Clinton over Bob Dole. But she can't envision crossing party lines this time: "I think Kerry's scary," she says.
And for every moderate voter like Jeckovich, there are more passionate ones, like Joe and Mary Mallon, attending the carnival with their kids.
Mr. Mallon, a physician, was once a registered Democrat - but says he's always voted Republican and has become more conservative since getting married. He agrees with Bush on "most things," though he notes, "some valid questions have been raised" about Iraq. He sees a stark division between the two parties over social issues. "Clinton was probably more fiscally responsible than Bush," he says. But "the Lewinsky thing really turned my stomach."
His wife is a self-proclaimed straight-ticket Republican, who just purchased a T-shirt off a website that reads: "Michael Moore is fat." Raised in an Italian family of Republicans in South Philadelphia, she's always voted with the GOP - but grew much more conservative in recent years, largely over the issue of abortion. She lost a child, she explains, and after that grew more active in the Catholic Church - and more focused on "what matters" in life.
A stay-at-home mom, Ms. Mallon listens to Sean Hannity on the radio and says she finds herself "yelling and screaming" about the politics of her more liberal neighbors. "We all sort of coexist," Mr. Mallon says. "This is a very volatile area."
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SCOTT WALLACE - STAFF
SOURCE: NATIONAL JOURNAL
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