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The highly coveted swing vote is in an angry mood.
Undecided often equates to unenthused. Now, they look at the national leadership choices and think: Undesirable. It is mid May, but there is little equivocating about the election that is six months away.
National polls have indicated a nearly universal polarization of voters into two camps backing either incumbent President Bush or Democrat Sen. John Kerry. Then a funny thing happened. Ralph Nader qualified for the Florida ballot. And already he is picking up support.
We checked this week with a small group of people who tracked as swing voters throughout the final stages of the 2000 presidential campaign. They are part of the I-4 corridor vote, the Tampa Bay to Daytona region splitting North Florida's conservatives from South Florida's lean to the left. These are the people who dot the I in independent. But this year, there is little indication the I also stands for indecisive.
Norm and Louis Dugas didn't vote for Bush in 2000. They won't this year, either.
"To be honest, I'm not pleased at all in Bush's administration. The Iraqi situation is going from bad to worse," said Norm Dugas of Heritage Lake Estates in west Pasco. "I'm not entirely pleased with John Kerry, but he is the lesser of two evils. I am leaning toward Kerry unless something dramatic happens."
Our swing voters from four years ago had been in a newspaper's focus group to watch the first presidential debate, or onlookers at George W. Bush's campaign stop at Pasco-Hernando Community College, or, like Dugas, simply working in the yard when Gov. Jeb Bush and other Republicans including Victor Crist and Bob White showed up in a door-to-door appeal for votes in a decidely GOP precinct.
Right up until four days before the presidential election, many of our swing voters acknowledged they still hadn't made up their minds between the sitting vice president and the Texas governor. Louise Dugas, for instance, voted for Gore on an absentee ballot, but tried to talk her husband into supporting Nader. Gore, incidentally, carried Pasco County.
Norm Dugas, packing up this week for the annual summer trip to New Hampshire, pondered the political question popularized by Ronald Reagan. "I'd ask the question, Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" he said, citing concerns about the economy and health care. "At the moment, I would say "No, we're not better off.' "
Doug Bell of Tampa would answer Dumas' question the same way. Four years ago, he managed a retail store. Now, he is a full-time caregiver for his 51-year-old wife, Marilyn, who has dementia and an equilibrium disorder that keeps her bedridden.
"She can't do anything for herself. Bathe, dental hygiene, feeding, dressing, she can't do anything."
He left his job in October 2002 and contacted 62 non-profit groups. He and his wife's assets coupled with her age disqualify them from most assistance. He said he is on the Department of Children and Families' 17-month-long waiting list for respite care.
Bell is a registered Democrat. In early November 2000, he leaned toward Bush because of his plan to allow for individual investment of Social Security accounts. He just didn't lean far enough. He ended up voting for Ralph Nader.
"No, I didn't vote for Bush. I won't vote for him this time either."
Job creation, the economy, health care and, again, Social Security are his top concerns.
But, guess what? He said he might repeat his vote for Nader. That's bad news for the Kerry camp.
Sally Barclay of Land O'Lakes likes Nader as well. An environmental specialist for the state of Florida, she voted for Bush in 2000. The flip-flopping and politicking gamesmanship are exhausting, she said.
"But I always know where Ralph Nader stands."
Her husband, Henry, said he has voted Republican most of his adult life and supported Bush in 2000. Not this year.
"I thought he had a good Republican solid business plan and he did not," said Barclay.
John and Cindy Hausman of Spring Hill mirror the Barclays in some ways. There is genuine disdain for the mudslinging. They also voted for Bush in 2000. The difference is they plan to do so again in November despite misgivings about the high price of gasoline and prescription drugs and an acknowledgment that the administration's tax cuts did little for them financially.
John Hausman cuts the president some slack, however, noting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, would have meant a difficult international picture no matter who was in the White House.
Mostly, though, he said he doesn't like what he hears and reads from the candidates.
"Nobody is talking about what we're going to do. It used to be presidential campaigns talked about what you're going to do for the future. Now you just talk about surviving the present.
"This partisan politics really stinks."