Leader of National Rural Advocacy Group Predicts Rural Voters Will Decide 2008 Presidential Election
 

 

Barbara Leach Says "Kitchen Table Issues" Will Prevail in November
 

WASHINGTON (RuralWire), April 14, 2008 – Midwestern and western states with large rural populations will be key battlegrounds in the 2008 presidential election and will likely determine which party controls Congress, the leader of a prominent rural advocacy group said this week.

Barbara Leach, founder and president of My Rural America, predicted that frustration with shrinking economic opportunities and other “kitchen table” issues will prevail over religious and cultural issues that were prevalent earlier in this decade.  She made her remarks at the North American Agricultural Journalists’ Conference in Washington, D.C.

Rural voters, troubled by the casualties and costs of the Iraq war and tax policies that favored those in top income brackets over the middle class, became disillusioned with policies favored by right-wing conservatives in 2006 and consequently helped give Democrats narrow majorities in the House and the Senate, said Leach. 

Leach noted that rising unemployment, high gas prices and the housing crisis are factors contributing to dissatisfaction among voters in rural areas.  She pointed out that Americans living in small towns sacrifice disproportionately on health care and education, two key issues in the upcoming election. “Rural schools serve over 40% of our nation’s students, but receive only 22% of federal education funding,” she said, adding that “Our sons and daughters are also serving disproportionately in the Afghan and Iraq wars”.

Among the goals of My Rural America, Leach told the journalists, is to assist rural readers and low resource media narrow the “information gap” that in recent elections resulted in voters supporting the election of politicians who have not represented the interests of their rural constituents.  Her organization is committed to calling attention to duplicitous legislators who tell constitue nts one thing at town hall meetings while voting against their interests in Washington. 

“We believe the people who live and work in rural America deserve better,” said Leach, “And we want them to have the information they need to make wise decisions.”  The group’s website www.myruralamerica.org focuses upon legislative issues impacting rural citizens’ kitchen tables.

Leach and her conservative counterpart GOP pollster Bill Greener who appeared with her on the panel, agreed that four rural states – Iowa, New Mexico, Ohio and Wisconsin – will be key states in the 2008 presidential election while Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Missouri will also be battleground states.  “That’s why the next President will be determined by rural voters,” she said.