Louisiana's chameleon voters tint red state purple
NEW ORLEANS -- They're known as the "others."
They're a sizable bloc of registered Louisiana voters — 643,000, at last count — from all walks of life, races, political leanings and economic backgrounds.
On Nov. 4, those voters could potentially help Sen. Barack Obama turn a statistically red state into a blue one when he faces Sen. John McCain in the presidential election.
But it would be a long shot.
"If he were to do it here, that's the place he could do it," Elliott Stonecipher, a political analyst and demographer based in Shreveport, La., said of the "others" voting bloc.
Louisiana's voters classify themselves in one of three ways: Democrat, Republican or "Other Parties." The "others" have been the wild card in past presidential elections. They range in political tastes from libertarian to independent to disillusioned Republican or disgruntled Democrat, Stonecipher said. They're not necessarily undecided, just unattached to a party.
The most recent poll, by American Research Group, shows McCain leading 50% to Obama's 43% in Louisiana. Without the "others," Obama can't win, Stonecipher said. The state has nine electoral votes at stake.
"Something dramatically different has to happen in the race to change the likelihood of McCain winning comfortably here," he said.
Former president Bill Clinton, a Democrat, persuaded enough "others" to vote for him in 1992 and 1996, winning Louisiana both years. But as the so-called Republican revolution spread across the South, Louisiana turned decisively red, helping elect President Bush in 2000 and 2004, Stonecipher said.
The state shifted further right after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, when thousands of largely black, mostly Democratic displaced residents fled to Houston, Atlanta and other cities outside the state, he said.
In Louisiana, issues often play a bigger role than party affiliation. Issues such as rebuilding post-Katrina (and, more recently, Hurricanes Gustav and Ike), the national economy and defense could help decide the presidential race here, said Stephen Crow, a business professor at the University of New Orleans. Crow, 66, said he was raised Democratic but voted Republican throughout the 1980s and '90s.
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