OPINION: Some Tips For The Campaigns Trying To Figure Out What Women Want
LAURA BILLINGS - Pioneer Press

Posted on Sun, Oct. 10, 2004

Did you happen to catch me on CNN last week?

I was one of the 57 percent of American adults, out of 525 polled by Gallup, who
thought that John Kerry did a better job in the first presidential debate.

If you missed that appearance, maybe you saw me in USA Today.

I'm one of the 53 percent who do not believe that Saddam Hussein was personally
involved in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

It seems my opinion is very much in demand these days. The Gallup pollsters have
already called twice to chart my biorhythms on everything from the war and health
care policy, to whether I have a favorable impression of Laura Bush and Teresa
Heinz Kerry. (I do.)

Another telephone push-button poll asked me whether I'd be interested in
supporting Ralph Nader for president. (No, thanks.)

And this past month, three different canvassers have personally offered to help me
with my voter registration card. (Already registered, but thanks for thinking of me.)

As flattering as all of this attention is, it will be fleeting I'm afraid. As a member of
the so-called "Security Mom" demographic that was predicted to be so influential in
this fall's election, I've been courted fervently all summer by candidates from the top
of the ticket on down.

Now it seems the pollsters who first identified married women with young children
as a potential block of swing voters have noticed we're not nearly as swinging as we
once looked. (No surprise when you consider none of us can stay awake past 10
p.m. anymore.) Like the NASCAR dads who have been driven off to the sidelines,
our very existence as a distinct demographic has now been debunked.

This is not to say the candidates have suddenly given up on appealing to women.
Quite the contrary. We're more likely to vote — 8 million more of us went to the
polls in 2000 than men. And we're not all sold on either candidate — a Time
Magazine poll says 61 percent of undecided voters are women.

This explains why both sides are trying so feverishly to cast their candidate as the
female voter's Mr. Right. The most absurd example of this appeared in Time
Magazine, which this week quoted "a senior Republican official" saying, "Kerry is
the weirdo first husband you married in college when you were an art major. Bush is
the solid second husband who saved you, helped you raise kids and taught you to
golf."

No wonder this genius didn't want to be named in print.

Clearly, the campaigns could use some help figuring out What Women Want, which
is why I'm offering a few female voting demographics they might want to consider in
the next few weeks.

There might be some ground to gain with hard-working women, outraged to learn
that the latest numbers still say there's a 30-cent wage gap between women and
men. This means we're in even worse shape when it comes to paying for increasing
gas prices and soaring health care premiums, not to mention the recent rate hikes
at Starbucks. Maybe pollsters could call us "Latte Ladies."

Single issues like abortion or gun control no longer seem as central in this election
as they have in years past. Do women want tax breaks or better schools? Are we
uncomfortable with stem-cell research, or do we want to find a cure for a parent's
Parkinson's disease? Do we want a safer world, like the security moms? And if so,
does that mean we have to send our sons to help ensure it? Instead of being pro-
choice or anti-, this voting bloc might be called the "Too Many Choices Moms."

And what about the "No More Paperwork PAC" — women filling out dependent care
forms for their kids and Medicare and prescription drug forms for aging parents? For
many of them, Bush's promise of an "ownership" society, with more health care
accounts and privatized Social Security, just sounds like more mail they can't
possibly cope with. These voters are not to be confused with environmental tree-
hugger types. But they wouldn't mind saving a few more trees from ending up in
their file drawers.

I've got plenty more ideas about reaching female voters if either campaign is
interested.

Just call Gallup — they've already got my number.

Laura Billings can be reached at [log in to unmask] or 651-228-5584

SOURCE: The Pioneer Press, MN
http://tinyurl.com/5ctaa

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