Mood rings sour

ELLENSBURG -- Just days before a presidential election that will make history regardless of the outcome, many voters across the Yakima and Kittitas valleys are flat out fatigued by the long fight for their vote.

But not 18-year-old Katherine Bell.

Like many young, first-time voters, the 2008 White Swan High School graduate has been electrified by a political process that's left many older voters angry and cynical.

"Just the historic value of this election is exciting," Bell said in a recent interview at Morelli's Italian Cafe near Central Washington University.

"The possibility of the first president of color or the first woman vice president? I know it's going to be hard for some people to accept change, but not for me."

Bell, a college freshman, said she was politically uninvolved until she watched rapper will.i.am's "Yes We Can" video, which was inspired by Illinois Sen. Barack Obama's speech after the New Hampshire primary.

She began paying close attention to Obama and the campaign and decided to participate in the Democrats' presidential caucus last February. She mastered a one-minute, pro-Obama speech required at the various party conventions and went on to become a 15th Legislative District delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Bell, who is not shy about her Christian values, believes the Illinois senator will bridge the racial divide and lead the country up from hard times and out of a five-year war that has tested the patience of many Americans.

But many people interviewed last week expressed sentiments more in line with Del Bennett, 72, a semi-retired beauty supply salesman from Yakima.

"I'm all ready for it to be over," he said. "This has been extra long."

They are tired of 20 months of seemingly nonstop media coverage and political advertising, an especially brutal primary season, and the long wind-up to Election Day with daily temperature-taking by pollsters and instant analysis by pundits.

Loren Van Tress, 68, a retired carpenter from Grandview, said he's burned out on Obama: "He's on TV every five minutes."

The Wall Street bailout has made people especially cranky this year, adding to the disconnect that rural voters already feel with Congress.

Compared to the mood of the voters four years ago, when the overwhelmingly Republican Yakima Valley cheered on the Swift Boat attacks against Democrat John Kerry, people say they are more mistrustful of candidates from both parties and think the campaigns have been especially nasty.

Erma Kurtz, a longtime Republican activist and the owner of Erma's Clip and Curl in Cle Elum, said last week's news reports about the mock effigy of Arizona Sen. John McCain's running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, at a West Hollywood home was a sign of how uncivil politics has become.

"It's uglier, it's worse," Kurtz said of both the presidential campaign and the gubernatorial rematch between Dino Rossi and Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Wes Underwood, 74, who lives on a cherry orchard south of Grandview, has a different take. The retired state trooper believes the arguments around the
coffeeshop tables are more heated this year because of the economic climate.

He admits he hangs out with more Republicans than Democrats, though Democrats share some of those coffeeshop tables with him, even in conservative areas like Grandview.

"There's more interest now than there ever has been," he said.

Many voters remain angry about the $700 billion bailout Congress approved for Wall Street and the U.S. banking system, saying it's made them more cynical about all politicians. For the first time in his life, 68-year-old Herb Lizotte, a part-time casino security guard, isn't voting.

"I don't trust either of them," said Lizotte, digging into steak and eggs at Mel's Diner.

Had Sen. Hillary Clinton been the Democratic nominee, however, Lizotte would have cast a ballot: "She would get things done. She's a decisive person."

Despite all the stump speeches and promises to move the country forward, the Republican and Democratic nominees have left Lizotte feeling that he'll be paying for a futile war in Iraq or paying more taxes for social programs.

"With (John) McCain, we'll always be in a war, and with Obama, you're going to be lucky to have a loaf of bread left," he said.

Nat Pulindo, 49, is registered to vote but lets his wife, Angie, fill out his ballot. He signs it.

"I'm one of those people who believes my vote doesn't make a difference," said Pulindo, who owns a construction firm and lives in Sunnyside.

The father of two with two grandchildren hates politics so much that he avoids watching the news. When the presidential debates were on television, he put in a movie.

"They all lie," he said of the candidates.

In downtown Toppenish, where Willie Nelson could be heard singing a ballad from a speaker on top of a vacant building, Dan Johnson has just finished morning coffee with the gang at the Gibbons Pharmacy soda shop.

A small businessman -- he's owned Kraff's clothing store next door for 38 years -- Johnson is an unapologetic Republican. But he's mad about the bailout, which President Bush and Republican leaders in Congress supported.

"It was a bad deal," Johnson said. "They should be helping people with their mortgages. If you give money to the people, it would circulate and help the economy. But what they're doing is losing the free-enterprise system."

Like others, Johnson, 66, accuses the news media of a liberal bias that resulted in friendly coverage of Obama, and thinks McCain and Palin are bearing the brunt of the negative campaigning. But he also shares the disgust that others seem to have toward all politicians these days.

"They get in there, they get the salaries and the retirement and the health care" paid by the federal government, Johnson said. "Why should they have so many privileges?"

On the next block, Javier Mendoza waits for customers at Cinderella's Fashion, which sells clothing and party novelties for quinceañeras, baptisms and weddings. It's his wife's store, but the harvest is over so Mendoza has some time on his hands.

The 42-year-old legal resident said he doesn't really understand politics but feels like the economy has weakened because he hasn't been able to achieve all his goals since coming to the United States in 1984.

"I don't understand politicians and what they say, but in the last few years I think things have gotten worse," Mendoza said. "I just want to improve my life."

Over at the Laundromat across from Safeway, 28-year-old Nayeli said she's paying attention to the presidential elections because she's undocumented, getting her news from Spanish-language newspapers and television.

Nayeli didn't want to give her last name because of her legal status, but said she'd like to hear more discussion about immigration -- a sensitive topic that Obama and McCain have largely avoided during the campaign. A field worker, Nayeli's been here 10 years and shares some of the cynicism about American politics.

"Obama could try to help people from other countries but I don't think he will get it done. It's a shame, because we are the workers in the economy," she said.

Back in Ellensburg, Bell, the CWU freshman, said she knows the electorate is polarized and worries the partisanship will linger after the election.

She experienced some of it herself when trying to raise money to pay her way to the Democratic convention in Denver. Bell was turned down when she asked an older member of her church congregation to host a fundraiser barbecue.

"He was real civil about it but he said he couldn't. If somebody asked me if I wanted to give someone money so they could experience the Republican convention, I think I would, because to participate, whatever your party, is such an awesome experience."

* Herald-Republic reporter Ross Courtney contributed to this story.

* Leah Beth Ward can be reached at 577-7626 or lward@yakimaherald.com.

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