Florida voters have key role in picking president
Posted: 10.22.08
Florida bishop’s Election Year Statement
The Florida bishop’s Election
Year Statement is available HERE...
DADE CITY | It’s time to make that final decision. With the general election a few days away, Americans will perform the most critical function as citizens – casting a ballot for president of the United States.
Are you ready for that responsibility?
According to one analyst, Florida voters, including Catholic voters, should be prepared because the Sunshine State with its fourth-largest population and its 25 electoral votes will play a critical role in the presidential race. Marco Rimanelli, a professor of St. Leo University, said Florida’s eclectic mix of residents – which includes retirees, young families, rural residents and immigrants, from various ethnic and religious backgrounds – puts Florida in the forefront of any important election.
“Florida has proved essential in the primary and national elections,” said Rimanelli, director of international studies and teacher of a course on presidential elections at St. Leo University, a Catholic school north of Tampa. “What will decide the election in Florida will be the I-4 corridor. Whichever presidential candidate controls the I-4 corridor will take the state electoral votes.”
Recognizing the strong role the state’s voters will play in the election’s outcome, Florida’s Catholic bishops jointly issued a statement recently reminding their flocks that as U.S. citizens they have a duty to participate in the selection of civic leaders and that as Catholics they are “called to carry the values of the Gospel and the sacredness of human life into the public square.”
VOTING CRUCIAL ACROSS MIDDLE OF STATE
Rimanelli broke down how the state might vote and why locations along Interstate 4, which is the area from Daytona Beach to St. Petersburg, are so critical. Traditionally, Rimanelli said, voters in south Florida, including Miami and the Palm Beach areas vote Democrat. But he added that the large population of Cubans in Miami are more apt to vote Republican, which is why both the John McCain and Barack Obama camps worked hard to seal votes in that area.
In contrast, north Florida, which he identified as the area from Jacksonville and across the panhandle to Pensacola, generally votes Republican. Rimanelli said voters in that area come from military and/or agricultural backgrounds.
The area along Interstate 4 has experienced “exponential growth” in the past three decades, Rimanelli said. And as the landscape of the area changed (from exclusively rural to retirees to young families and working upper middle class), so has voter makeup.
“Retirees are knowledgeable and many are fully involved in civic and volunteer activities. They are educated, but have specific interests. Health care, national security and Social Security are major concerns. Education is less of a concern and on immigration, it depends,” Rimanelli said. “A lot of Floridians have switched parties in the last 20 years. And population trends affect how people vote locally. … The issue becomes how many people will go to the polls and vote. How do you get them to vote?”
‘CATHOLIC VOTE’ HARD TO PREDICT
Catholic voters will also play a key role in the election. Rimanelli said Catholics tend to vote Republican, a shift from voting predominantly Democrat since the 1970s. Will that shift play out in the election?
“We won’t know till Election Day,” Rimanelli said. “We will have to see. Polls are important but they can say anything. What matters is the results on Election Day.”
Along with the presidential race, Florida will decide on 61 races for Florida House, 13 races for Florida Senate and 23 races for U.S. House. The Florida Catholic, in cooperation with the Florida Catholic Conference, the Florida Council of Catholic Women and the Florida State Knights of Columbus, developed the Candidate Questionnaire Project in which candidates for legislative and congressional offices answer whether they support or oppose issues of importance to Catholic voters. With roughly a 50 percent response rate, candidate responses available online here.
Three debates, countless advertisements and endorsements from major organizations served to sway votes. But one organization did not offer an endorsement – the Catholic Church. Why? Because the role of the church is to encourage voters to be informed, not to tell voters for whom to vote, according to Mike McCarron, executive director of the Florida Catholic Conference.
“The bishops recognize that the responsibility to make choices in political life rests with each individual,” he said. “Instead of telling people for or against whom to vote, the bishops want to help the faithful form their consciences in accordance with God’s truth.”
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