Election News and Features
Clinton Focuses on Pennsylvania's Catholic Electorate
March 31, 2008 11:50 AM
by
findingDulcinea Staff
Pennsylvania’s Catholics could sway the state’s April 22 primary. The group has already shown strong support for Clinton.
30-Second Summary
Catholics account for some 30 percent of Pennsylvania’s population.
A recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University shows Hillary Clinton is ahead by 70 percent among Pennsylvania Catholics, with Barack Obama polling at 24 percent.
The Catholic Review wrote that, as of Feb. 24, despite little fanfare, Clinton had won the Catholic vote in all but two Democratic primaries.
Clinton has devoted much of her Pennsylvania campaign to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre corridor, where the population is largely working class and Catholic.
Clinton’s apparent willingness to reschedule her campaign and march in the Wilkes-Barre St. Patrick’s Day Parade has resonated with local voters, writes Richard L. Connor, editor and publisher of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., paper The Times Leader. “Her skills go way beyond the good sense to honor parochialism. She understands voting blocks. Winning in Northeast Pennsylvania is important.”
Given that both candidates are pro-choice, they have focused their campaigns on social issues such as health care. University of Scranton student Chris Molitoris changed his party affiliation to Democrat so he could vote for Obama.
"I'm pro-life, but I don't want to look at just the pro-life issue alone to determine the quality of the candidate. I've taken more of, I guess, a holistic approach,” he told the Associated Press.
Catholic voters did something similar in the 2004 election, which saw Catholic candidate John Kerry run on the Democratic ticket.
John Kenneth White, a political scientist at Catholic University, said in an April 2004 NPR interview that Kerry’s social justice platform could be a draw for Catholics who do not take a literalist approach to their faith.
A recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University shows Hillary Clinton is ahead by 70 percent among Pennsylvania Catholics, with Barack Obama polling at 24 percent.
The Catholic Review wrote that, as of Feb. 24, despite little fanfare, Clinton had won the Catholic vote in all but two Democratic primaries.
Clinton has devoted much of her Pennsylvania campaign to the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre corridor, where the population is largely working class and Catholic.
Clinton’s apparent willingness to reschedule her campaign and march in the Wilkes-Barre St. Patrick’s Day Parade has resonated with local voters, writes Richard L. Connor, editor and publisher of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., paper The Times Leader. “Her skills go way beyond the good sense to honor parochialism. She understands voting blocks. Winning in Northeast Pennsylvania is important.”
Given that both candidates are pro-choice, they have focused their campaigns on social issues such as health care. University of Scranton student Chris Molitoris changed his party affiliation to Democrat so he could vote for Obama.
"I'm pro-life, but I don't want to look at just the pro-life issue alone to determine the quality of the candidate. I've taken more of, I guess, a holistic approach,” he told the Associated Press.
Catholic voters did something similar in the 2004 election, which saw Catholic candidate John Kerry run on the Democratic ticket.
John Kenneth White, a political scientist at Catholic University, said in an April 2004 NPR interview that Kerry’s social justice platform could be a draw for Catholics who do not take a literalist approach to their faith.
Headline Link: ‘Catholic Vote Critical for Dems in Pa.’
The Associated Press writes, “With traditional Democrats who are Catholic, the perception is that Clinton is more of a known quantity who paid her dues in the party.”
Source: Seattle Times
Background: The 2008 Catholic vote
In a Feb. 24 article, The Catholic Review wrote that little attention has been paid to the Catholic vote during this year’s election cycle, but there has been a clear trend towards Clinton among Catholic Democrats. “Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York has been getting a majority of the votes of Catholics in nearly every Democratic primary, no matter who won. Only in Louisiana and Georgia did Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois get more votes from Catholics than Clinton did … Even in states such as Maryland, where Obama took 60 percent of the vote, Clinton was supported by a majority of Catholic Democrats,” reports the Review.
Source: The Catholic Review
Historical Context: Catholicism in U.S. politics
On Sept. 12, 1960, Sen. John F. Kennedy delivered a speech about being Catholic and a presidential candidate to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association. Kennedy explained, “I am not the Catholic candidate for president. I am the Democratic Party's candidate for president who happens also to be a Catholic. I do not speak for my church on public matters—and the church does not speak for me.”
Source: John F. Kennedy Library
NPR’s Barbara Bradley Haggerty compared the Catholic vote in 1960, when Kennedy was running for president, to the role played by fellow Catholic John Kerry in 2004. Haggerty says that in Kennedy’s day, “voters worried that he was too Catholic to be elected,” but the largely faith-minded American electorate in 2004 worried that Kerry “was not Catholic enough.” Only 46 percent of Catholics identified as Democrats by the Reagan era, compared to 82 percent in 1960. Catholic University political scientist John Kenneth White said that Kerry would largely appeal to “cafeteria Catholics,” who value the social justice facets of the faith more than the “absolute dogma.”
Source: NPR
Bob Casey was a two-term Democratic governor of Pennsylvania who was known for his pro-life views—which he believed was the reason he was not allowed to speak at the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Some members of the party contend that this was because he did not endorse the Clinton-Gore ticket. His stance against abortion prevented him from supporting Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Harris Wofford and Mark S. Singel, his lieutenant governor who was campaigning to take over Casey’s seat after he served his term limit.
Source: Pittsburgh-Post Gazette
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote in a 1983 paper entitled “The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and our Response,” that the nuclear arms race of the era was “one of the greatest curses on the human race” and “negotiations must be pursued in every reasonable form possible.”
Source: U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (PDF document)
Opinion & Analysis: Clinton’s background resonates with Pa. voters
ThreeSources.com, a blog written by four professed conservatives and libertarians, writes of the attention given to Pennsylvania’s primary, “It seems to me that the Democrat Party finds religion only in even numbered years…Bravely Bob Casey Jr. is bucking the endorsement trend and standing athwart history with his finger in the wind.”
Source: ThreeSources.com
In his blog for The Scranton Times-Tribune, Borys Krawczeniuk says that the Pennsylvania leg of Obama’s campaign “continues to downplay his chances here, a smart move, given current circumstances … If Mrs. Clinton dominates the state, she'll bolster her argument for going on and will raise more doubts about whether Mr. Obama can beat Mr. McCain in the minds of at least some superdelegates.”
Source: The Scranton Times-Tribune
Richard L. Connor, the editor and publisher of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. paper The Times Leader, writes that Clinton’s appeal among the state’s Irish Catholics stems from the fact that she understands and respects local traditions, such as rearranging her stumping schedule to march in the area St. Patrick’s Day parade. “Her skills go way beyond the good sense to honor parochialism. She understands voting blocks. Winning in Northeast Pennsylvania is important even though the largest percentage of voters is in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas,” Connor writes.
Source: The Times Leader
Reference: The Democratic race and the Catholic vote
Real Clear Politics offers a comprehensive breakdown of each candidate’s pledged delegates and superdelegates by state primary.
Source: Real Clear Politics
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops runs Faithful Citizenship, a guide for Catholics on how to become politically active on behalf of Catholic causes.
Source: Faithful Citizenship
Related Topics: ‘Romney Discusses Mormon Faith’
In his Dec. 6 speech entitled “Faith in America,” former GOP presidential contender Mitt Romney focused on the common ground Mormonism has with other religions, but refrained from detailing the tenets of his faith. Pundits compared his speech to the one President John F. Kennedy gave on Catholicism in 1960.
Source: findingDulcinea
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