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CNN has a piece on how many Republicans are torn this election, because Obamacare really helped their families. Most of them seem to be carefully weighing their voting decision. But be sure to read all the way to the bottom!
Jon Campbell may become one of the Republican "defectors" Traugott says could make a difference in battleground states.
Campbell, 49, has voted Republican in nearly every presidential election since he cast his vote for Ronald Reagan in 1980, but this year might be different. For two years his 22-year-old stepdaughter, a self-employed dog trainer, didn't have health insurance. Then Obamacare kicked in and she was allowed onto her father's insurance.
"If something had happened to her during those two years it would have been a disaster," Campbell says.
The Olathe, Kansas, resident is leaning toward Obama, but not just because of his stepdaughter. Campbell's wife, Barbara, has diabetes and is in the final stages of breast cancer treatment. She's now on his insurance, but if he ever lost his job, his wife would be faced with trying to buy insurance on her own and would surely be rejected.
"I'm really torn," he said. "Because of Obama, I now have a wife who can get covered. But really, at heart, I'm a limited-government kind of guy."
Campbell said if the election were held today, he'd vote for Obama, but not without a lot of reservations.
"It's really an intriguing conundrum," he said.Like Campbell, Sara Nicastro feels conflicted about her vote. A popular diabetes blogger, Nicastro, 31, knew a woman who stopped taking her insulin regularly when she lost her insurance, and Nicastro thinks it might have contributed to her death. Nicastro said she herself would be "in a pickle" if she were ever laid off because insurance companies don't want to offer policies to diabetics.
Still, Nicastro, a lifelong Republican who lives in south Florida, will vote for Romney in November. She cares about other issues besides health -- most notably the economy -- and she's voted Republican in every election. She even remembers the excitement she felt when she shook Bob Dole's hand at a rally at her high school 16 years ago.
"The Republican party most closely matches the things I value and the beliefs I have," she said. "I'm pretty passionate about it."
Katherine Weaver, who also has diabetes, hasn't considered voting for Obama for even a minute.
"I'm born to be a Republican," she said.
Weaver, 52, knows it would be difficult if not impossible to buy insurance on her own because of her disease, but she said she's not worried because she has good insurance through her job as a public school teacher in Dallas, where she's worked for 20 years.
"It's very hard to get rid of teachers," she said. "I'm very protective of my job. I document everything I do."
Ha, ha! "Born to be a Republican" who counts on her union job to give her perpetual benefits, not even bothering to connect the dots that Republicans have imposed massive and draconian cuts in Texas. She thinks there won't be any more?
Poor thing! She's not so bright, for a teacher.
