Pols Battle to Win Pa. in 2004

A L L E N T O W N , Pa., Sept. 15, 2004 -- Pennsylvania is a state of struggling steel towns, farm country brimming with Pennsylvania Dutch, leafy suburbs and a small but significant number of voters who are fiercely independent, tough sells.

Not that the candidates aren't trying — President Bush made 34 visits to the battleground state as president, more than any other state excluding Texas. Sen. John Kerry has visited Pennsylvania 15 times in six months.

The state's major cities historically vote for Democrats, while the rural regions lean Republican, so both candidates are focusing on ticket-splitting voters in the densely populated counties outside Philadelphia, where the race could not be any tighter. The candidates have both visited the Philadelphia area within the last few days — Bush was in Montgomery County on Thursday, Kerry was in Lehigh County one day later.

Many Pennsylvania voters have yet to make up their minds.

"At this point, I just can't make a decision on either one," said Vickey Lewis, who was eating brunch at the City View Diner in Allentown after church Sunday. "I'm totally undecided."

"Here the ticket-splitters really do determine the election, and the ticket-splitters aren't just those who are registered as independents," said Roy Afflerbach, mayor of Allentown, which is part of Lehigh County, one of the state's hotly contested areas. "They're Republicans and Democrats who cross over routinely."

"If you win in the Lehigh valley you'll win statewide," the mayor said. If one ignores the anomaly of the last election — with Al Gore winning the popular vote but losing in the electoral battles — "generally it's been a bellwether nationally as well."

Keith Miller spent Sunday at an Allentown sports bar watching football, where he was rooting for the Eagles and for Bush, even though he voted for Al Gore in 2000.

"September 11th, he was a very strong person," Miller said of Bush. "When he says he's going to do something, he's going to do it."