Indiana, a Cultural and Economic Stew, Poses a Puzzle in the Primary Race

NYT: Indiana, a Cultural and Economic Stew, Poses a Puzzle in the Primary Race
By MONICA DAVEY
Published: May 4, 2008

SALEM, Ind. — It is hard to run for office across this state, mostly because there is no single Indiana. Politically, culturally, economically, linguistically, there are at least three Indianas, and maybe four or five or more. Even the state’s veteran political minds do not always agree on where the many regions — and demands — begin and end.

In this far Southern Indiana town of 6,500, for instance, Steve Erwin, a barber, pointed to two Bibles stacked on the counter beside his barber chair and, even as he snipped away at the head of hair before him, slid open a drawer to reveal the gun he keeps within reach. “And I’m not bitter, either,” Mr. Erwin said, mocking comments Senator Barack Obama made about small towns and wondering aloud whether people here, in a nearly all-white county seat where the mayor and the county Democratic Party chairwoman have backed Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, could fathom an Obama presidency.

Four hours north in Gary, a predominantly black city of 100,000, a vastly different debate has been simmering in the days before the primary on Tuesday: a Clinton supporter has questioned the school system’s decision to bus high school seniors to the county courthouse for early voting, field trips that some said looked like a way to try to produce higher numbers for Mr. Obama. There were no students in a downtown polling place for early voting on a recent morning, but there was a short line of people waiting, all of whom said they planned to cast ballots for Mr. Obama. “I’m voting for him because he’s black and qualified and because he speaks to what Gary needs,” said Gwendolyn Redding, who like many others in the area around Gary once worked at a steel mill.

People in the city said they had never heard of Salem. People in Salem had heard of Gary but urged a visitor to steer clear of it.

“I don’t know how any of these candidates can suit everyone in Indiana,” said Connie Wright, a gift basket designer who has spent her 57 years in Salem. “People here don’t want to hear what they want to hear up there, and I don’t know how you would appeal to all of us. Indiana is a killer that way.”

Gary, in the northwest corner of the state, is part of “the Region” or “the Calumet Region,” Indiana’s manufacturing communities near Lake Michigan that are rooted to Chicago, Mr. Obama’s home. Salem is one of the agricultural towns stretching south of Bloomington, a traditional base for conservative and moderate Democrats (like the late Gov. Frank O’Bannon) where the accents and the music feel tied to Kentucky and where Mrs. Clinton is expected to do well. Indianapolis, the state’s capital and its most populous city, exists as its own universe smack in the state’s center. Democratic officials say Mr. Obama is likely to have a strong showing there. And there are other pockets and subpockets — around Fort Wayne, Evansville, South Bend, Terre Haute — each with its own complicated political tastes in a tangled mosaic that was created, mainly, by 19th-century immigration patterns....

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/04/us/politics/04indiana.html?pagewanted=all

...is so significant. The Kentucky paper pretty much covers Southern Indiana (Kentuckiana, as the local car dealers call it) from State Road 46 down. For people in this part of the state, it means more than the Indianapolis Star endorcement of Clinton.

...that defies any easy characterisation. Hoosiers are very proud people.

I've enjoyed -- learning so much about each and every state. Lots of things I didn't know!

And I know there's a definite downside to the length, but I did think that in my state, there was such excitement to seeing the two candidates close up. There was increased Dem registration and participation -- and, I think, a validation of both candidates as potential Presidents.

I was really surprised by how many people had at one time lived in PA., and I love all the pics, and reports from people canvassing, going to rallies etc., It really makes me feel a part of it somehow.