GOP Losing Advantage With Married Moms

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush walk into St. John's church on Sunday, Oct. 8, 2006 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Evan Vucci - AP)

NEW ALBANY, Ind. -- After winning over moms in back-to-back elections, Republicans have lost their advantage among married women with children this year.

The Republican Party has seen the support of people like Jeannette Hopkins evaporate.

A 30-year-old married mother of two and a Republican, Hopkins voted for President Bush in 2004. But she says she probably will support the Democrat in her congressional district this fall "because of the way that everything's been handled" with the GOP in charge of Congress and Bush in the White House.

"We're in a really scary place right now," Hopkins said recently. She vented about what she called the gone-on-too-long Iraq war, a sluggish economy, the bungled Hurricane Katrina response and a continuing terrorism threat.

She blamed Republicans as she hustled down an alley to the office she manages in this Louisville, Ky., suburb.

Votes like hers could decide which party controls the House and Senate after the Nov. 7 vote.

Poll results and interviews with political analysts indicate the GOP has lost ground with a voting group that helped the party keep hold of Congress and the White House in 2002 and 2004. Married moms have become a volatile swing group just as Democrats need to gain 15 GOP-held House seats and six in the Senate to win control of Capitol Hill.

An Associated Press-Ipsos poll this month found that support is now evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans among married women with children in the house. Republicans won this voting group by 18 percentage points in 2002 and Bush won it by 14 percentage points in 2004.

The shift among married moms was reflected in the anxiety-laden voices of several in the Ohio River Valley, a conservative region home to several competitive House races.

"People have no money. The economy is not going well," said Michele Huber, 29. A married mother of three, she gave the country a "poor to fair" rating as she speed-walked in a suburban Cincinnati park with one of her children, a niece and a nephew in tow.

A Republican, she voted for Bush in 2004. She said she was not sure whether she would again if she had the chance or whether she would vote with her party next month _ a sentiment echoed by others.

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