PENSACOLA, FLA. — At Adams Pawn, a middle-aged man in a tracksuit haggles with the shop's proprietor over a Winchester rifle.
Shop owner Charles Harding shakes so violently from Parkinson's disease that he clutches the counter for support. But he gives the customer his best sales pitch. A $250 transaction like this could be the difference between a good day and a bad.
The pawnshop is a much-frequented establishment and an economic bellwether in this hard-up corner of the Panhandle, home to military bases, evangelical churches and conservative Republican voters.
Before the last general election, Democratic strategists defined people like Harding -- politically disaffected, blue-collar voters -- as a key demographic to win in 2004. But as they have done every election without fail since John F. Kennedy's run in 1960, people here went for the Republican candidate, with 65% of Escambia County residents voting for George W. Bush.
The winner of the Republican primary in Florida on Tuesday will take all of the state's delegates, making it a key battleground for the GOP contenders. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has won Harding's vote.
"I like the way he sounds," he says, standing in the crammed pawnshop across the street from Dinosaur Adventure Land, a "Bible-based creation museum," according to the sign out front.
Harding, 64, saw Huckabee on Jay Leno's show and the candidate left a favorable impression. He seems to be "one of us" instead of "one of them," he says, referring to the economic and political elite of New York and Washington.
Although his top concern is the economy, Harding has a visceral election-year caveat known among some Republicans as ABC, or Anybody But Clinton.
"We had eight years of the Clintons. We don't want another eight," he says, before his wife, Rhoda, interjects: "We don't want another eight years of Bush either. And I say that even though I voted for him."
Rhoda is 61, but her freckled cheeks and strawberry-blond hair makes her look younger. She is also drawn to Huckabee. She's a bit shaky on his economic policy, but finds his outside-the-Beltway personality attractive. "He sounds down to earth," she says.
Charles' daughter, Linda Anderson, 44, is visiting from Coral Springs, a city in southern Florida where Rudolph W. Giuliani is more popular. Like her neighbors, Anderson supports the former New York mayor who, she says, showed his mettle on Sept. 11.
