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Suburbs' Soccer Moms, Fleeing the G.O.P., Are Much Sought [1]

['Carey Goldberg']

Date: 1996-10-06

'' . . . vote with their hearts,'' finished his wife, Leslie.

But it is far from that simple.

At an evening mah-jongg game in a suburb of Lincoln, Neb., the five players -- all married white women -- listed an array of issues that concerned them most and that President Clinton seemed better on, like abortion, health care reform, gun control, improved public education and paid leave for family caregivers. But Michelle Carr, 38 and a Democrat who voted for George Bush in 1992, said she would nonetheless vote for Mr. Dole -- reluctantly -- because she could not trust Mr. Clinton. Like several other women interviewed, she said that neither candidate seemed right but that she would vote for Mr. Dole because ''we need some tax relief in this household.''

In Richmond, Mary W. Alexander, a mother of two from the suburb of Mechanicsville who teaches learning-disabled children, expressed a similar lack of enthusiasm for both candidates but leaned the other way.

''I was really for Bush, so there was a reason to vote for him,'' she said as she sat on a folding lawn chair and -- a literal soccer mom -- watched her son play for the Chickahominy Chargers. ''Dole is not a very appealing candidate. A lot of women I teach with feel the same way: Clinton is the lesser of two evils.''

Mr. Clinton, she added, ''does seem to care.''

That sense of caring appears to count tremendously for women who say their political approaches have altered since they had children.

''You think where the country's going to be in 10 years,'' Ms. Alexander said. ''You aren't so me-centered. Before, I thought how it was for me -- taxes, Social Security, balancing the budget. Now I'm thinking about them -- drugs, education, medical reform. You get that mom focus.''

[END]
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[1] Url: https://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/06/us/suburbs-soccer-moms-fleeing-the-gop-are-much-sought.html

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