Gov. Palin and Energized GOP Women

McCain Enjoys Surge in Women's Support

The unparalleled women's involvement even extends to the Florida fund raising arena - traditionally dominated by men, according to Cindy Graves, 1st VP of the FFRW. "During last week's million dollar fund raising swing through Jacksonville, an astounding 50% of the participants were professional women. That has never been accomplished even in Duval, a county well known for its fund raising efforts, "said Graves who served as a co-host of the Governor Sarah Palin Duval Fund Raiser.



Additionally, by all accounts Florida Women for McCain is the state's largest coalition, according to FWFM Chairwoman Sharon Day. "We started with a traditional base of party loyalists and have grown to more than 11,000 active Republican, Independent and Democrat women leaders. We have never seen this level of organized response among women in a national election in our state," said Day who has served as the Republican National Committeewoman of Florida since 2001.

Let's keep in mind, this is basically a press release from a GOP Women's group, but it does underscore one worry from Obama. How much extra women turnout will Sarah Palin generate? Not from the die hard Hillary supporters, I think it's well accepted that while there are a few of those, they do not exist in significant numbers, and not even from independents, which had an initial boost for Palin, but seem to have moved back to normal.

But definitely among GOP women who would otherwise have sat on their hands or considered crossing the aisle to vote for the economy guy. Does there exist a large number of leaning GOP women which can turnout in large numbers for McCain. Quite possibly, as the above article shows, and I can also confirm that there is at least one voting age women in my house were definitely not going to vote for McCain but will gladly pull the lever for Palin. So that's one.

But what's also interesting about this is that it corroborates an article I read yesterday about an alleged talk with an Obama pollster.:

As she was explaining her perspective it dawned on her to ask why he (the Obama internal pollster) was interested in her view of Palin. He replied that Obama's campaign is extremely nervous about the energized republican base and what he called the "unkown factor" regarding Palin's draw as a candidate.

In the polls they're conducting around the country, and my boss wasn't able to relay specific numbers, the Obama campaign is very, very worried about how Palin appears to be energizing whole groups of people who don't typically get energized about politics, precisely because she appeals so strongly to the middle class, as well as women and dissatisfied republicans that stayed home in 2006.

Take it FWIW, but interesting, no?