We certainly pray it is so:
A new survey from Rasmussen Reports shows that Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain is leading Democratic Sen. Barack Obama among Catholic voters in the key swing state of Ohio 51 percent to 43 percent.
McCain leads Obama among all Ohio voters by 48 to 47 percent, a statistical tie within the September 28 poll’s margin of error.
According to Rasmussen, 57 percent of Catholic voters named economic issues the most important, while 15 percent named national security issues the most important.
Catholic voters are positioned to be an important swing demographic in Ohio.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, Ohio has more than 2 million Catholics. The Catholic vote is particularly strong in western Ohio in the Dayton area and the 13 rural counties north and east of the city. There are more than 500,000 Catholics in that area, more than in any part of the state except Cleveland.
While about one in four Ohio voters is Catholic, they tend to have a higher turnout rate.
Rev. John Putka, a Marianist priest and political science professor at the University of Dayton, told the Columbus Dispatch that the Catholic vote is “going to decide the election.”
He broke the Catholic vote into three blocs: observants, modernists, and secularists.
According to Father Putka, “observants” are conservative, attend church regularly, and typically vote Republican based on abortion and other social issues. They supported George W. Bush over John Kerry in 2004 by 65 to 35 percent.
“McCain’s selection of Palin totally galvanized this pro-life group,” Fr. Putka observed. “They were lukewarm before but not now.”
That last bit is very important as it provides a solid base among Catholic voters for McCain, while allowing McCain, himself, to go after the less observant – yet still non-liberal – Catholics who are genuine swing voters. And this could decide it – and, of course, this is why it appears that Obama and his Democrats are pulling out all the stops in their voter fraud efforts in Ohio. While Obama can win the White House without Ohio, it is a very difficult prospect…and even more difficult given the prospect of Obama losing Michigan and having to fight desperately for Pennsylvania’s Democrat yet pro-life voters.
As we go into the home stretch, look to the way the Catholic vote is breaking – if McCain maintains and/or expands his lead amongst Catholics, then November 4th will be a long, long night for Obama and his Democrats.
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