Rural Voters in W.Va., Elsewhere Vital: ; War May Lessen Support for Bush in Some Regions

Summary

---

MOOREFIELD, W.Va. - In a town where a small detachment of National Guard troops recently returned safely from Iraq, that far- away conflict has become a local concern. Moorefield is festooned with patriotic bunting and yellow ribbons but also laced with new doubts about a president who carried this county in 2000 as he won a surprising victory in West Virginia.

Places such as Moorefield and Hardy County are important to President Bush because they're rural. Without the rural vote, Bush would not have won in 2000. Unless he hangs on to those voters, he may not win in pivotal contested states this year, according to a new poll of rural voters in 17 battleground states.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Rural Voters in W.Va., Elsewhere Vital: ; War May Lessen Support for Bush in Some Regions

Rural voters "constitute the margin of difference in those critical states, and therefore they constitute the margin of difference in the election as a whole," said Bill Greener, a consultant who normally works with Republican candidates and one of two pollsters who conducted the survey in mid-June.

Greener and Democrati...

See the full content of this document

---