NPR: Clinton Focusing on Small Towns in Oregon, North Carolina

Clinton Focusing on Small Towns in Oregon, North Carolina

It was a strategy that paid off in Pennsylvania, a state solidly in Sen. Hillary Clinton's "column." But she is continuing her focus on small towns in two other states that are either strongly in favor of or leading towards Sen. Barack Obama, North Carolina and Oregon.

The Oregonian reports that as in previous states, many of the visits to small towns will be made by Sen. Clinton's husband, former President Bill Clinton.

"Sen. Clinton has been performing extremely well with working class union households and rural Democrats," Josh Kardon, chairman of Clinton's Oregon steering committee, said in a telephone interview Thursday. "We are going to take this campaign to places that most presidential candidates never venture."

The paper says the Clintons are focusing on counties that went solidly for President George Bush in the last election, but still have more registered Democrats than Republicans.

The Raleigh News and Observer reports that Sen. Clinton "finds common ground with white voters in the state's military towns and the mountains."

Many rural and small-town whites in the South are now registered Republicans. But North Carolina still has more white Democrats than most Southern states, and they have been a prime target for Clinton and her husband, the former president.

People interviewed by the paper cited the way Clinton behaved during the Monica Lewinsky scandal as a reason for their support, and that some were leery of Obama because they weren't sure "of his religious beliefs."

3:10 PM ET | 04-26-2008 | permalink

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