Democrats Look Beyond City Limits

Missouri State Auditor Claire McCaskill, right, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate, has been touring rural areas of the state in a 31-foot RV. During a stop in Mexico, Mo., in April, she chatted with Shirley Winter, a supporter. (By Kelley Mccall -- Associated Press)

Hoping to capitalize on this discontent, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is reviewing the voting patterns of rural and exurban voters in the targeted states and has sought advice from Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D-Va.).

"The successful campaigns of Ken Salazar in 2004 and Tim Kaine in 2005 prove that Democrats are capable of making inroads with these communities and can, at the very least, reduce the large deficits in exurbs that have fatally damaged other candidates in recent history," Schumer wrote in a memo to his colleagues.

How successful Democrats are in this effort will be one of the determining factors in which party controls the Senate in 2007.

This fall's contest in Virginia between Sen. George Allen (R) and James Webb (D), a secretary of the Navy in the Reagan administration, is an example.

Once viewed as a long-shot race, Virginia now counts among Democrats' top eight potential takeovers. Their optimism springs from a belief that Webb's r?sum? as a decorated Vietnam War veteran and longtime Republican will allow him to blunt the traditional GOP edge in largely rural central and southwestern Virginia.

Steve Jarding, a strategist for Webb, said the key for Democrats to be competitive in rural America is simple: Just show up. "You can't write it off," he said. "We need to quit conceding turf to Republicans."

It was not by accident then that Webb announced his candidacy in Gate City, in the far southwestern part of the state. Scott County, of which Gate City is part, voted 65 percent for President Bush in 2004 and 63 percent for Allen when he defeated then-Sen. Charles S. Robb (D) in 2000. Webb must improve on those numbers to have any realistic chance of winning, analysts say.

While Webb's r?sum? may be appealing to rural voters, his positions on issues are out of whack with their beliefs, said Allen campaign manager Dick Wadhams. He said that while Democrats make "cosmetic" arguments on why they can appeal to rural voters, there is no substance beneath that style.

"Showing up at a NASCAR race wearing a flannel shirt does not do anything to change the reality that Democrats are by and large out of touch with rural voters on fiscal and cultural issues," Wadhams said.

James G. Gimpel, a professor of government at the University of Maryland, said that while recent Republican struggles have narrowed the partisan gap among rural voters, the perceived liberalism of national Democrats makes any wholesale shift among this group unlikely.

"If you don't prime rural voters on the issues that they care about, a lot of them will go your way because they are Democrats," Gimpel said. "If you remind them of how conservative they are and how liberal the national Democratic party is, those Democrats would say they will vote for the man, not the party."