This is pure speculation, but I suspect there is increasing concern about whether the environment is being properly protected. I've been somewhat disappointed in some of the positions the new administration has taken on environmental issues,'' says GOP Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a leading moderate. A top Republican business lobbyist in the capital says privately that he believes corporate interests are overreaching by pressing the administration to bow too conspicuously to their demands. The administration's strategy has great risks. In the last election, women gave an 11-point advantage to Vice President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, siding with him by 54 percent to 43 percent.
Suburbanites are more concerned about the environment than are urban dwellers.
The gender gap was slightly wider in the suburbs than in other areas. The suburbs are the big environmental battleground. In the 2000 election, for example, Gore specifically stressed road congestion and sprawl, issues that appeal to people who moved to the suburbs for quality of life only to find their mobility choked and their lifestyles compromised by development. Last fall, Democrats carried most of the states with large proportions of suburban voters, including California and New Jersey, often regarded as the textbook examples of suburban politics. And figures assembled by Congressional Quarterly from state election offices show a dramatic erosion of Republican support in suburban areas.