Obama's prospects in Missouri may hang on economy, and race

"I am not voting for a black man," they tell Booth, who leads organized labor's Democratic campaign effort in nearly all-white St. Charles County.

Others are indirect but make clear that their unease with Barack Obama's race will influence their vote on Tuesday. "It's a difficult thing to try to break down those barriers," Booth said.

Whether Obama or Republican rival John McCain carries Missouri depends in no small part on the nearly 250,000 voters of St. Charles County, a fast-growing working-class area. It would be tough for any Democrat to win in this culturally conservative county, where many voters oppose abortion rights and gay marriage. However, the troubled economy and Obama's huge campaign operation have put the entire state in play.

The nominee is making two trips to Missouri in the campaign's final week. He has 44 offices in the state, which President Bush won handily in 2004, compared with McCain's 16. As for unpaid volunteers in Missouri, Obama has thousands.

Steven S. Smith, a professor of political science at Washington University in St. Louis, said Obama's campaign was the most elaborate any presidential candidate had ever mounted in Missouri. "The sheer number of campaign volunteers going door to door -- get-out-the-vote, voter-registration efforts -- has been beyond belief," he said.

Obama also is spending three times as much as McCain on television ads in the state.

Missouri's economic distress also has enhanced Obama's prospects. In St. Charles, a county of 344,000 near the convergence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, rising home foreclosures attest to the tough times. So do the 10,000 new empty lots on the county's exurban frontier: Developers leveled them to build houses but cast aside construction plans in the absence of buyers.

Still, race remains a potent force in the White House contest here, even as Obama's top advisors argue the contrary.

"The truly undecided are not undecided because of race," campaign manager David Plouffe said. "They're undecided because they haven't decided who's best on taxes, healthcare and other issues."

But the effect of race in Missouri is apparent to Tommy Roberts, the Democratic chairman of St. Charles County. Leaning on a desk in the bustling Obama office here, Roberts recently recalled the racist graffiti scrawled on cars out in the parking lot one night.