ST. LOUIS — The Democrats scrambling for votes in Missouri's wide-open presidential primary will find an electorate worried about the same issues that resonate across the nation: jobs, healthcare, the war in Iraq and above all, beating President Bush in November.
But they'll also find some quirks to Democratic Party politics in the Show Me State.
Most campaigning is done in the state's two big urban centers, Kansas City and St. Louis. Voters there closely resemble the traditional Democratic Party base. They tend to support abortion rights and favor gun control. They're more liberal (or, as some analysts put it, more Yankee). They include unionized workers and a strong African American contingent.
These two population hubs are where Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry -- who leads in recent polls -- can expect to do best, pundits say.
Outside the big cities, the political climate shifts. This is what locals call "outstate" Missouri: a landscape of cattle pastures, soy fields, wineries and one-block towns. In many of these rural counties -- some known as "Little Dixie" -- Democratic Party roots stretch back to the Civil War. Voters are much more conservative than any the presidential contenders have encountered so far.
"The first thing anyone running for office there is asked is, 'What's your position on the 2nd Amendment?' The second thing they're asked is about abortion," said Rick Hardy, a professor of political science at the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Voters expect the answers to be: I'll leave your guns alone. And I'll fight to restrict abortion rights.
They won't find a Democratic contender in this year's primary to line up with them on abortion. But analysts say outstate voters might be drawn to the Southern roots and small-town background of North Carolina Sen. John Edwards. The family tradition of military service in parts of rural Missouri might boost retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, from neighboring Arkansas.
Analysts traditionally put considerable stock in Missouri's urban-rural split as they try to handicap political races. This year, however, there's a wild card: All the candidates are largely unknown here.
Until last week, the Democratic hopefuls had written off Missouri, sure that voters would back Rep. Dick Gephardt, who has represented St. Louis in Congress since 1977.
