Out on this road, the issues come first - Perry, Sanchez: uphill fight to win rural, suburban voters

HASKELL, Texas - Out here, cotton and cattle are as big and broad as the far-flung sky, and politics is the tamped-down, straight line of the distant horizon.

Even in Rick Perry's hometown of Paint Creek, political yard signs are as rare as a vegetarian restaurant.

"I don't care who's elected as long as cattle prices stay up and it rains," said one rancher, leaving a livestock auction.

A governor can't stop the drought. A senator doesn't buy meat on the hoof. But even cowboys get sick, and farm kids need school.

There is a road connecting all Texans, from the red, flat-skillet plains of West Texas to the brushy gray sands of Tony Sanchez's Laredo. Along that road there is worry over health care, insurance, education and Iraq.

Republican Gov. Perry needs these 150 miles between Haskell and Fort Worth, a stretch of rural fields and suburban living rich in conservative voters. And this is where Democrat Sanchez needs to cultivate the independent-minded Texans who have been falling into the neatly sown rows of the GOP.

"I'm sick of listening to both of them," said Todd Harris, 36, a service manager at the John Deere repair shop in Samford.

He is taking a break in the two-booth cafe of the Haskell Livestock Auction. The tinny, stuttering voice of the amplified auctioneer can be heard like background Muzak: "Hundred, -dred, -dred, now 10, hun-red and 10, 10, 10."

"I think he'll take care of teachers, but I don't know about that Tony Sanchez," Mr. Martin said.

Mr. Perry signed the law last year that provides state money for teacher health insurance. It is a lifeline to Mr. Martin now. His wife teaches, and he suffered a heart attack three years ago. Shunts were implanted last year, and his prescriptions cost $92 a month.

If his wife should lose her health insurance, well, he doesn't know what they'd do.

He's out of ranching now, but the concerns about heart strain remain. There's no pampering that - he's eating fried steak strips in cream gravy.

He's a brand inspector now. The ranch land is being turned into hunting leases, he said. The fields are empty.

Carter Fore, a co-owner of the auction corral, said Haskell County has always tended Democratic, but - like the governor did himself a decade ago - it is gradually switching parties.

Although he's a Democratic Stephens County commissioner, Mr. Fore said he is voting Republican.

"I went down the ballot last time. The district clerk and I were the only Democrats I'd vote for," he said.

Conservative Democrats have been defecting to the GOP for the last decade, Democratic pollster Jeff Montgomery said.

West Texas, for the most part, will go Republican, he said. But the battleground will be in the suburbs, where the downturn in the economy, investment losses and insurance are issues that have the power to swing voters back to the Democratic column.

"There's an opening there, but whether the Democrats can get them to walk through the door and pull some of those Anglos back to their side is another question," he said.

Mike Baselice, a Republican pollster, said Mr. Sanchez isn't the candidate to persuade the college-educated, baby boomer, white suburbanites to leave the Republican porch.

In recent polls, Mr. Sanchez's momentum seems to be reduced to tractor-speed, and he hasn't closed the gap.

Down the road, rural life is being consumed by the whirlwind that is the suburbs. What once was ranch land is now sprouting voters for the Republican Party.

Twenty years ago, Weatherford was about cattle, chickens and hogs. It was 30 miles from Fort Worth, long beyond its back yard. Now, it's the bedroom.

"When I moved here, we had 400 dairies and ranches. Now, they're cut into 5- and 10-acre tracts with a horse and a dog," and many of the landowners work in Fort Worth, said Noel Bryan, who at 74 is a rarity. He's a veterinarian who still makes house calls.

"In my drive along Mineral Wells road, it used to be that I'd pass 100 cars in a day. Now, I'll pass that many in five minutes," Dr. Bryan said.

With his world changing so quickly, one of the things he wants to keep is the governor.

"I don't like Tony Sanchez," he said. "He'd allow everyone who came over from Mexico to get a Social Security card and a driver's license."

At the Two Heels and a Loafer shop in Weatherford, Bill Reynolds repairs cowboy boots for a living.

"Insurance is the big theme for me," he said. "However I vote, it won't be straight ticket." He said he is leaning toward Mr. Sanchez.

He used to own five shoe shops in Fort Worth but sold them and invested the money. Now those funds have evaporated, like his hopes of retiring this year.

His shop is small, and customers are squeezed between a wall of used boots and the sales counter. Everything is beige or brown, like a tintype. Even the picture of Dale Earnhardt on the wall behind him is in black and white.

"I've been doing this for 30 years," Mr. Reynolds said. "I thought I could retire, but my investments, you know. I knew it was a gamble, but if I were American Airlines, I'd get bailed out."

Twenty-three miles east to Benbrook, where cows graze on the rolling hills near highway interchanges, Netha Yeakel misses George W. Bush.

"I loved Bush to death," said Ms. Yeakel, at the Antique Mall and Tearoom, where she is putting out decorative lamps for sale.

If she had her druthers, she'd skip the governor's race altogether because she's so disgusted with both candidates.

"But now our insurance has gone up and all these problems we've had," she said. "Normally, I'd stay with the Republican, but may not this time."

Judy Judd, 40, mother of five who works raising her family, said there's no doubt she'll be voting Republican, as she always has, because the party represents her beliefs in its support for less government and opposition to abortion.

"I'm not discouraged that Rick Perry has come out and defended himself," she said.

Along the streets of her neighborhood are single-story, ranch-style brick homes, modest but neat. Down long blocks, the manicured boxes of front yards are uninterrupted by political signs.

Here in the gateway to city life, just as it was in the fields of West Texas, hardly anyone is wearing their choice on their sleeves.

"People in my neighborhood and the people I associate with I think are keeping their distance from the political rancor," she said.

Frank Nuss, 80, a retired petroleum engineer from Weatherford, is still pondering that choice.

Of the governor's race, he said, "It's the dirtiest damn political race I've seen. But it's not going to keep me from voting for the less obnoxious one. As of today, it's hard to say which one that is."

Governor Rick Perry (Left) & Tony Sanchez

http://www.nbc5i.com/politics/1707582/detail.html

NBC 5 Exclusive: Voters' Poll

Rick Perry enjoys a comfortable lead in his race against Tony Sanchez, Jr. according to our poll of 600 likely voters throughout the state of Texas.

Nearly half of all likely voters think both campaigns are using "unfair" campaign ads.

The poll was conducted from Sept. 30 through Oct. 6 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1%.

Governor , "who do you think you would vote for if the election were held today?"


	State	North Texas	East Texas	South Texas	Central Texas	West Texas

Democrat Tony Sanchez, Jr.	29%	31%	28%	32%	26%	15%

Republican Rick Perry	56%	52%	59%	50%	56%	70%

Undecided	15%	16%	13%	18%	18%	12%


	State	Male	Female	White	Hisp	Afri-Amer

Democrat Tony Sanchez, Jr.	29%	26%	31%	24%	43%	70%

Republican Rick Perry	56%	60%	51%	63%	32%	12%

Undecided	15%	13%	17%	12%	26%	19%

And for inquiring minds that want to know about the Senate Race poll numbers....

US Senate"who do you think you would vote for if the election were held today?"


	State	North Texas	East Texas	South Texas	Central Texas	West Texas

Democrat Ron Kirk	30%	33%	28%	29%	33%	20%

Republican John Cornyn	56%	55%	57%	51%	55%	66%

Undecided	14%	12%	14%	20%	12%	14%


	State	Male	Female	White	Hisp	Afri-Amer

Democrat Ron Kirk	29%	26%	33%	24%	43%	77%

Republican John Cornyn	56%	61%	51%	63%	30%	9%

Undecided	15%	12%	16%	13%	26%	14%

Afri-Amer
Democrat Ron Kirk 77%
Republican John Cornyn 9%

Undecided 14%

Interesting, Kirk only has 77% of African-Americans firmly suppoting him, and is likely to have more than 10% vote against him.

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