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 On October 18th, HarlemLIVE went to Scranton, Pennsylvania to get a different perspective on the presidential election, and to see what the people of Scranton were doing to get people to vote for their preferred candidate. We visited both the Obama and McCain headquarters, as well as other areas, to find out why people should support either candidate, and why they favored their particular candidate.
Scranton stands in a valley bordered by the ridges of the Allegheny Mountains and to the southeast the Pocono Mountains. The Scranton brothers, some of the first European settlers in Pennsylvania, arrived in the area now known as Scranton around the late 1700’s. In 1840, they built the iron furnace that would later grow into the Lackawanna Iron and Steel Company. During the 1800’s Scranton’s primary industry was steel, but after WW2 Scranton’s steel industry and economy collapsed. In the early 1900s, most of the hard coal mined in the country came from the Scranton area. The declining demand for coal after World War II forced Scranton, earlier than other industrial centers, to find new ways to diversify its economy. Having a deficit for more than three years, and projecting a 1992 deficit exceeding 23 percent of its $33 million budget, Scranton was designated a distressed municipality by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
Scranton is broken up into four major sections: West Side, South Side, the Hill Section and North Scranton. The population of Scranton is 76,415, with an eligible voting population of 60,523, according to the 2000 census. Scranton’s population is predominantly white at 93.54%, with an African American population of 3.02% and a Latino population of 2.62%. The number of white collar jobs in Scranton stands at 24,267, while blue collar are 36,609, also stated in the 2000 census. White-collar jobs refer to salaried or educational workers who do semi-professional office work, while blue-collar jobs require manual labor.
 Our first stop was Illinois Senator Barack Obama’s headquarters where we spoke to a few volunteers and asked them about their efforts in trying to get people to vote for the Senator. Most of the people were young. Most of the volunteers were Caucasian. However some were mixed. It looked like the offices occupied the ground floor of a dormant movie house. There was training going on and it seemed very professional and organized. A lot of phone calls were being made. The atmosphere was busy and productive. There were many volunteers and staff working hard. However we were only allowed to talk to volunteers, not paid staff. They had a lot of yard signs that went quickly. The volunteers often compared McCain to Bush, although the Obama literature was positive and didn’t trash anyone.
Next we went to Arizona Senator John McCain’s headquarters to learn more about what the volunteers were doing to help McCain in his efforts to become the next president of the United States. We spoke to the manager of the organization, Charlie Spano, who stated, “I think John McCain and Sarah Palin offer this country honesty, integrity and strength of character, and that’s their personal qualities as individuals and as leaders.” He doesn’t feel Obama has the “strength of character or the credibility on the international stage to be able to defend the United States interests properly.” He felt the Obama organization was controlling. He said, “That’s a top down controlled organization; they want to control the flow of information.”
McCain headquarters were making some phone calls, seemed quite productive, but not as much as Obama’s headquarters. It was a very small place, which fit at most 10-12 volunteers. The headquarters made me feel comfortable and relaxed. Unlike the Obama headquarters, we could speak to anyone. The people there were exclusively Caucasian. The literature was totally different and very negative towards Obama, for instance one flier had his teeth look dark and nasty, and with silly facial expressions, as opposed to having material on McCain.
 At the McCain headquarters, Georgia, 38, felt a strong commitment to the organization. “I am an independent voter. However I like McCain’s ideas and he seems very presidential to me.” When asked her role in the organization she said “making phone calls”, which she said seemed to be the most effective way of getting people to favor McCain. She also said if McCain didn’t win, she would feel “very sorry for our country, very sad, because it would be really bad, really, really bad.” Despite this she said, “Our country deserves Obama if he does get elected.” She feels that if Obama does get in, “we just have to accept the fact that they way Americans live directly reflects who they vote for.”
Besides the campaign headquarters we also spoke to others in Scranton. At the Waffle House outside the center of town, waitress Cindy, 32, said she was pro Obama. She went on to say that 90% of her costumers are for Obama. “He’ll get rid of the negativity that Bush brought in.” Also she said, “It’s time for America to have a change.”
When asked what she felt would happen if McCain got elected, Cindy said, “If he gets elected it’ll be worse.” She mentioned McCain’s policies on health care as example. “I have boys and I don’t want them over there [Iraq] fighting Bush’s war”
Next we stopped at a local hair salon to get peoples views on the election. There we spoke to Kim, 40, who when asked who she was voting for said “I’m not really sure,” and when asked why, she stated, “I don’t feel as though Obama has enough experience and as far as McCain, I’m still shady on where he stands.”
“They can’t make promises they can’t keep”, she repeated constantly. She felt strongly about foreign policy and how its affecting the United states, an example being the Iraq war. “First of all they have to figure out what they’re gonna do with this war, because this war is killing us, first of all we have no business over there.”
 At the salon we also spoke with Connie Bennett, 19, a strong Obama supporter. “I’m a strong supporter of Obama, A lot of his reasons and a lot of his ways about changing the country I agree with.” A reason she gave for supporting Obama was, “First of all he’s a black man, not that I’m solely dependant on his race to influence the way I feel, I just feel he’s realistic.”
She made a contrast between Obama and the republicans saying, “He wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth as with most republicans.” She said, “What McCain is planning to do with the country isn’t any different from what were going through now.”
Connie has high hopes that Obama will win and “the cards play well for him.”
Overall we got different views other than those of the people in New York City. We found a wider perspective of both the presidential candidates. We also were able to see the variety of views of the residents in Scranton.
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