Monday, April 17, 2000
Independents have leanings
Ohio analysis finds some party loyalty
The Associated Press
DAYTON — Few Ohio voters who call themselves independents really fit that label, as most lean toward a major party and tend to vote that way, the Dayton Daily News reported Sunday.
Often depicted as a disaffected, monolithic force ready to topple America's two-party system, political analysts say independents are a fragmented group with a wide variety of political philosophies.
Polls increasingly show that most people who claim they are not attached to a major party still tend to vote for one party more often than another, the newspaper reported, and voters agree with that assessment.
But at the same time, voters express ambivalence about the parties.
This presents a challenge for Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush, who are reaching out to these independents in their race for the presidency.
“It'll be the leaners who will be the deciding folks here,” said Robert Adams, a political scientist at Wright State University.
When Mr. Gore staged an “open meeting” last Monday at Butler High School in Vandalia, he asked local party leaders to invite only independents and undecided voters.
And in Cleveland last Tuesday, when Mr. Bush unveiled a program for the working poor, he was lobbying the independent voters who were a force early in this primary season.
Statewide polls show Ohio voters split evenly among Republicans, Democrats and independents, the newspaper reported.
But the polls also show that when independents are asked if they consider their ideals closer to those of Democrats or Republicans, many of them choose sides, leaving only about 12 percent of registered voters as “true independents,” the newspaper reported.
“When you ask if they lean toward a party, many Ohioans jump right out of the independent category and say, 'Oh, well, I do lean,”' said Eric Rademacher, co-director of the University of Cin cinnati's Ohio poll.
Many people use the term “independent” to mean independent-minded, Mr. Rademacher said.
“They don't want people to understand they are not totally driven by partisanship in their choices. It's way out of style now for someone to say, "I vote the party line.'”
Political analysts say the rise in independents coincided with the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal and is in some way a reflection of the parties' loss of connection with voters.
“You don't have the numbers of people attending party meetings or party functions,” said former Ohio Democratic Chairman Jim Ruvolo. “People are not as prone to say I'm a Democrat now and forever, or I'm a Republican now and forever.”
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