By Steven Thomma, McClatchy Newspapers –
CHANDLER, Ariz. — They take conservatism seriously in Arizona, the state that launched native son Barry Goldwater to the 1964 Republican presidential nomination and gave him the platform to found the modern conservative movement.
They also take seriously a top lesson of Goldwater’s landslide loss in the general election against Democratic President Lyndon Johnson. In their hearts, they might have thought he was right. But in their heads, they would rather have won.
That hunger to defeat an incumbent Democratic president — this time Barack Obama — drives Arizona Republicans and helps explain why Mitt Romney appears headed for an easy victory in the state’s primary on Tuesday.
The former Massachusetts governor leads the field by comfortable margins in recent polls of likely primary voters. His lead is wide enough that he pulled out of the state after Wednesday’s debate to focus his time on Michigan, where he has a much closer contest with chief rival Rick Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania.
Like Republicans in other states, voters in Arizona point to Romney’s experience in business and status as a Washington outsider as key reasons they like him.
“He’s the only candidate who has run something. Everyone else is a legislator,” said Don Bennett, a retiree from Chandler.
And like voters in some states where Romney has won — such as New Hampshire, Florida and Nevada — they think he’d be a stronger challenger to Obama than the nearest alternative at the moment.
In Arizona, many like Santorum. But they fear he might be a bit too conservative, particularly on social issues such as abortion and contraception, to win.
Bennett, for example, said Santorum would cost the party swing votes. “They’re going to focus on his social conservatism,” he said. “They’ll try to demonize him. I’m just not sure he could win the independents.”
“I like him. He’s a good family man,” said Nancy Bowerman, an artist from Chandler. “I’m a born-again Christian. But I’m a little nervous about his feelings about abortion. It affects electability as far as women are concerned.”
Primary voters by a 2-to-1 ratio say finding a nominee who can defeat Obama is more important than finding a true conservative, according to an NBC-Marist poll. Even “very conservative” voters say 3 to 2 that winning is more important.
Suzan Money, a real estate worker from Chandler, is among those very conservative primary voters. Undecided, she was weighing Gingrich, Romney and Santorum — with winning uppermost on her mind.
She likes Romney’s business background but still questions his conservatism. “I don’t totally trust him.” she said. “I’m very conservative.”
But the appeal to the more conservative Santorum is tempered by a concern that he might lead the party to defeat, “I like him a lot. He’s more conservative,” she said. “But I need electability. We have to beat Obama.”
