Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 3/18/08 Section: News
Candidates just can't stay away from Phila.
Region seeing barrage of campaign stops during month before primary
Colin Kavanaugh
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For the next four weeks, Pennsylvanians will find out what it's like to be at the center of the political universe as candidates prepare for the state's April 22 primary.
During the week before spring break, Chelsea Clinton campaigned on campus at Wynn Commons for her mother, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, who toured the state last week, making a stop at Temple University.
Also over break, Michelle Obama, wife of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, campaigned at Villanova University. Today, Barack Obama will give a "major speech on race" at the National Constitution Center downtown, according to a press release. Hillary Clinton will also speak downtown today at City Hall.
According to recent polls, Clinton holds a double-digit lead over Obama in the state. But with four weeks of uninterrupted campaigning, both candidates will have the opportunity to change the dynamic of the race.
"[The candidates] will try to be everywhere because they have the time to be everywhere with enough money to be everywhere," said Randall Miller, a St. Joseph's University history professor and political analyst.
According to Miller, the Pennsylvania campaign will be focused around Philadelphia's "voter-rich" population, but candidates will not shy away from visiting other parts of the state.
Several Clinton events in Pennsylvania last week were focused on the Scranton area in the northeast, where she spent time as a child. The area also houses a strong white, working-class community that has been favorable to her in other states.
Miller said the Philadelphia region will be Obama's primary focus due to the large black and student community in the city and a strong young-professional and college-educated population in the suburbs.
And while these group allegiances appear to change little from state to state, it "doesn't mean they won't be going after the other's voters," Miller said.
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