'Security Moms' in Wisconsin Not Easily Labeled After All

"Middle class, lower class, I don't know," she said Sunday as she stood outside her family's modest rambler in suburban Milwaukee. "I know we can't just go take trips, we don't go out to fast food restaurants anytime we want, we fix our own cars."

Kerry or Bush?

"I used to think Democrats were more for people like me; I think that's changed." said the 45-year-old mother of three, a salad cook in a corporate cafeteria. "I guess I think Republicans are more for the upper class, but I'm against abortion. I don't know who I'm going to pick. It's still tearing at me."

Voters like Olson -- married white women who never went to college -- are some of the last holdouts in this election, and they could end up being critical to its outcome. President Bush ran well with this group in 2000, and polls show that, this year, his lead among them has widened.

In battleground states such as Wisconsin, where the race is a statistical tie, Olson's decision -- and the decisions of thousands like her -- could tip crucial electoral votes into either candidate's column.

"They are an important part of the story of this election," said Stan Greenberg, the campaign pollster for Sen. John F. Kerry.

Greenberg said that although polls have shown Kerry leading Bush among all women -- who traditionally lean Democratic -- the senator was trailing among women such as Olson. He also said they were "disproportionately represented among the undecided."

In a national Times poll conducted in late October, 64% of women in this group said they were supporting Bush and 28% planned to vote for Kerry.

These women have largely been lumped in the "security mom" category -- married women predominantly concerned with domestic security and leaning toward Bush because they think he will be stronger on that front.

Cathy Polzin, a stay-at-home mom married to a factory worker, epitomizes that label. A registered independent, she voted for Democrat Al Gore in 2000 because, she said, she "just didn't trust" Bush. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks changed her opinion of him and her outlook on the world.

"I just had never given homeland security any thought," Polzin, 39, said Saturday during a Bush rally in Ashwaubenon, Wis., a suburb of Green Bay. "My eyes were opened. I saw what a big role the U.S. plays in the world and that it's up to our president to keep us safer."