"Faith vote" big in Pennsylvania primary

By Ed Stoddard

MECHANICSBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Darwin McAfee is a white evangelical Protestant who is opposed to abortion and likes the great outdoors.

This makes him a prototype Republican. But he's a registered Democrat who plans to support New York Sen. Hillary Clinton in next week's crucial Pennsylvania primary.

"I'm a registered Democrat and I'll probably go for Hillary. I think it's a change, I'd like to see a lady get in there," said McAfee, 50, a Pennsylvania resident who works for the water department in the neighboring state of Maryland.

Analysts say the "faith vote" is in play in the April 22 primary, the next big fight in Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The Democratic rivals answered issues questions about faith and policy on Sunday at a forum held at Messiah College, near the state capitol of Harrisburg.

The Pennsylvania "faith vote" could also prove crucial come the November presidential showdown, with the Democratic primary providing a possible glimpse of things to come.

Pennsylvania is a so-called swing state because it can go with either major party and margins of victory there are usually slim. Religious affiliation is often the hinge for these shifts.

Take the white evangelical Protestant vote in the state.

In 2004 President George W. Bush got almost 80 percent of the ballots cast by white evangelical Protestant nationwide.

But according to University of Akron political scientist John Green, in Pennsylvania in 2004 Democratic presidential contender John Kerry did much better among this group than he did nationally, getting 37 percent of their votes there.

Analysts see room for Democratic gains here in November and a real battle now for their votes between Obama and Clinton. About a fifth of the state's adult population is evangelical according to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public life.

"I think you will find a lot of evangelicals here will break for Obama. His charisma and message resonate with evangelicals who have expanded their agenda to look beyond abortion and gay marriage," said Dean Curry, a political scientist at Messiah College.

GOD, GUNS AND REV. WRIGHT

But Obama has two potential drawbacks with this crowd: his recent comments about economically frustrated residents in the state clinging to "guns and religion" and the outrage over sermons by his pastor Jeremiah Wright in which he branded America as racist and the September 11 attacks as "payback."

Weeks after the story first broke the most e-mailed story in the Philadelphia Inquirer was a commentary about Obama's operatives and their underhanded use of "race baiting" which led with the storm over Wright's "hateful views."