An Indiana voter weighs 3 presidential hopefuls

[May 03, 2008]  PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal (AP) -- Bernadine Stanek is a Republican who doesn't care much for Republican Sen. John McCain. She likes Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's health care plan but not her position on abortion. Barack Obama? Not for her.

Stanek, from Cedar Lake, faces a tough choice in the Indiana primaries Tuesday - not just which candidate to vote for, but whether to engage in the already settled GOP contest or the pitched Democratic one between Obama and Clinton.

How voters make their decision can be a mystery, even to themselves. The Associated Press turned to respondents in a continuing series of AP-Yahoo News polls and asked some of them to talk about what factors they weigh.

Stanek is 27, married to Michael, a shipping clerk for a machine shop that fixes water pumps. They have three children, 7, 4 and 18 months, and she stays home to care for them. The eldest, Gabriel, has cerebral palsy.

The family began using food stamps six months ago.

"It's very hard. We don't have much money for going out and doing stuff."

There's no cable or satellite TV in their home and no cell phones. "There's not much we can cut back on." But she says she's careful with debts and does not fear foreclosure.

"We are a low-income family to begin with. So when 20 percent of our income, of our weekly pay check, goes toward gas, that's a lot of money, and since we don't have public transportation where we live ... we really depend on our cars."

McCain and Clinton propose to suspend the federal gasoline tax, a move Obama opposes. But Stanek is looking beyond specifics like that in deciding what to do Tuesday.

"I'm looking for a candidate who is honest, who has experience, who is pro-life, against the death penalty, who cares about the environment," she said.

"Most of them go against my religious beliefs."

"I'm a Catholic so Hillary goes against the life issue. I'm very pro-life."

And while McCain speaks of his opposition to abortion rights, she's not convinced he means it.

Obama? "I think he's too good of a talker to be trusted."

For her, it's between McCain and Clinton, a decision that appears to be going down to the wire in her house, just as it is in the Democratic race at large.

[Associated Press; By CHRISTINE SIMMONS]

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