Economy, Jobs Key in Wis. Primary Vote
By JULIET WILLIAMS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 18, 2004; 8:48 AM
MILWAUKEE - Forty percent of voters said their top issue in Wisconsin's Democratic primary was the economy and jobs, and many of them threw their support behind Sen. John Edwards, helping propel him to a surprisingly strong second-place showing in the state.
Edwards also got a boost from independents and late-deciders in Tuesday's election, an Associated Press poll found, but it wasn't enough to overcome Sen. John Kerry's strong support from people focused on finding someone who can beat President Bush in November.
Three-quarters of Edwards voters said they had decided to back him in the last week, as Edwards picked up two newspaper endorsements and got good reviews for a Sunday debate. More than half the Kerry supporters said they decided to vote for him before the past week.
The weak economy figured prominently in a state battered by the loss of more than 74,000 manufacturing jobs since Bush took office, many of them shipped overseas. Three-quarters of voters said international trade deals are bad for jobs in Wisconsin.
Edwards stumped relentlessly on bringing those jobs back, which resonated with Jackie Podolski, 27, who liked "the fact that he's stressing different ways to get employment."
Scott Bethke, 52, of Sun Prairie, said he voted for Edwards because he likes the North Carolina senator's perspective on labor.
"I just think he's talking to the basic working person," said Bethke, a telecommunications worker. "He grew up poor and made something of himself. I think he knows how it works."
The results were from a poll of 2,277 voters conducted for the AP and television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International. Results were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, higher for subgroups.
Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, captured voters who had a dim view of their own finances and the nation's economy - about four in five overall said the country's economy is not so good or poor, and 42 percent of them voted for Kerry, 34 percent for Edwards.
One-third of those surveyed said that in deciding how to vote, they focused more on finding someone who can oust Bush than backing a candidate who agrees with them on major issues - similar to results in exit polls in the earlier 2004 primaries.
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