Florida's values voters show dismay

[seafan]

Values voters show dismay

By SHERRI DAY
Published November 5, 2006

About 4 million Floridians are considered values voters. Thirty-seven percent of the state's registered voters consider themselves "born again" or "evangelical," according to Schroth/Eldon & Associates, a Washington company.

Marilyn Peeler and Terry Kemple are exactly the kind of voters who worry some Republicans.
Self-described values voters, they support candidates whose positions on social and moral issues match their own. Much of the time, they favor Republicans. But not always.
In this year's race for governor, they're both undecided.
"Neither the Republican or the Democratic candidate is standing solidly on Christian values," said Peeler, a retired teacher's assistant who lives in St. Petersburg. "Most people I've talked to have said they don't feel they really have a choice."

Kemple, a longtime Christian activist in Brandon, feels the same way.

snip

According to national exit polls, members of the overwhelmingly white evangelical and Roman Catholic block made up about one-fifth, or 23 percent, of the electorate in 2004. Seventy-eight percent of the bloc voted to re-elect President George W. Bush, according to the Pew Research Center.

A St. Petersburg Times poll conducted last month revealed that nearly 37 percent, or about 4-million, of Florida's registered voters consider themselves "born again" or "evangelical," according to Schroth/Eldon & Associates, a Washington firm that conducts polls for the Times.
This year, many state and local ballots are missing the kind of social issues such as gay marriage and abortion amendments that pushed such voters to the polls two years ago. In the absence of hot-button issues, some election watchers predict that values voters may stay at home.

snip

"This is not a situation like we had in 2004 when you had mass gay marriage and John Kerry and this sense of terrorism and 9/11," said John Stemberger, a Christian conservative leader who ran Florida's marriage amendment campaign. "We've heard a number of people say that they're frustrated, and they want to sit out.
--snip
Some scholars predict that values voters will slowly peel away from the Republican Party as evangelical leaders begin to shift their focus to more traditionally Democratic issues such as the environment, AIDS and poverty.

Welcome to the light, people. We've missed you.