Candidates fight it out in must-win Pennsylvania

The state offers 21 electoral votes and could be an election deal breaker.

YORK, Pa. (AP) — The presidential race in Pennsylvania may well come down to a fight for the hearts and minds of people such as Cindy Moran.

She’s afraid that Republican John McCain will continue economic policies that led to the current financial crisis. But Democrat Barack Obama’s remark last April that rural Pennsylvanians cling to their guns and religion still makes her uneasy.

“It’s just, I don’t know what he’s thinking,” Moran said of Obama as she pondered the candidates after coffee at a rural farmers market near the Maryland border. “I don’t know what he wants, really. It’ll be a last-minute decision, I think.”

There are plenty of reasons things should be going Obama’s way in Pennsylvania.

The state was a Democratic highlight in 2006 as the party took control of Congress, picking up a Senate seat and four House seats here — more than in any other state. Since 2004, when President Bush barely lost the state to John Kerry, the Democratic advantage in party registration over the GOP has swelled to more than 1 million — including 100,000 voters who have joined the party since the state’s April primaries.

Even history is on Obama’s side: A GOP presidential candidate hasn’t won the state since 1988. But this was Hillary Rodham Clinton country during the primary elections — she defeated Obama decisively.

And the lead Obama had over McCain in polling here before the party conventions has dwindled. That’s partly because of a burst of enthusiasm for McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, but Obama also has been struggling in Pennsylvania to attract the white working-class voters who flocked to Clinton in the primaries.

Both GOP candidates were campaigning in the state Monday.

The stakes are enormous: With 8.5 million registered voters and 21 electoral votes, Pennsylvania could decide who takes the White House.

In McCain, Republicans say they’ve found a good fit for independent-minded voters in the state, who tend to be socially conservative.

There are Democratic strongholds in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and conservative bastions in Pennsylvania’s rural central and northern regions. But the state’s middle-class Philadelphia suburbs and old industrial towns are home to many voters willing to vote across party lines.

Some haven’t forgotten Obama’s comment during a San Francisco fundraiser in April that bitter voters in rural Pennsylvanians cling to guns and religion because of their economic frustrations.

The state has fared better economically than its Rust Belt counterparts, Ohio and Michigan. But the number of residents who were unemployed reached a five-year high in August, and there’s plenty of worry about the economy and government spending.

As on every other issue, Pennsylvanians are hardly unanimous on the veep choice:

“I trust my wife with anything and everything, and I trust Sarah the same way. She’ll make the right decisions,” said Phil Reilly, 48, a construction business owner and father of four from Chester Springs.

“I understand they needed to do that to bring some change in and go after my demographic of women white voters, but it’s not enough to sway me,” said Gabrielle Raia, 35, a biotech sales representative and real estate agent from Conshohocken.