Voters Will Watch Closely During Candidate Visits

Arkansas voters will be getting plenty of attention in the next few days--the two top presidential candidates are coming to the Natural State. And with the primaries in less than two week, voters will be soaking it all in before heading to the polls. The Arkansas primary may not count for much in the presidential election, since John Kerry has pretty much locked in the Democratic nomination. But the state`s votes will mean a lot more come November. And in light of a prisoner abuse scandal in Iraq, and the recent deaths of six Arkansas soldiers, the candidates will still have plenty to talk about this week. Some voters say the seeing pictures of U.S. soldiers allegedly abusing Iraqi prisoners isn`t enough to turn their heads from President George Bush. "He`s a very strong person, he`s had a lot of flak before, there will be detractors who try to use that against him," said voter Dianne Cox, of North Little Rock. But voters like Forrest Webb say they`ve had enough of Bush, and he could be handling the job much better. "I`ll have to vote for Kerry. I voted for Bush the last time," Webb said. After the recent deaths of six Arkansas soldiers, a plan of attack for getting out of Iraq will be what some Arkansas voters need to hear from anyone running for the White House. "I think there`s a lot of concern on the people of Arkansas especially families of those soldiers over there about what`s going to happen," said Ron Oliver, Arkansas Democratic Party. "It obviously means more when the President makes a decision, the person trying to take his job can only react to it or make comments about it," said Rep. Stephen Bright, (R) District 14. Recent polls place Bush and Kerry in a dead heat in Arkansas, with 45% of voters polled supporting Bush, and the other 45% supporting Kerry. The President`s handling and Kerry`s reaction to the situation in Iraq could make the difference for undecided voters. No matter what voters hear from the candidates coming trips to the Natural State, it`s likely both candidates will be back many times more, before the fight is over. "I`d like to hear him say, he`s gonna get our boys back from oversease," Webb said. "I`d like to be able to hear him say he`s bringing our guys home," said Cox. Arkansas is among 11 other tossup-states, those that so far aren`t leaning in either direction towards Bush or Kerry. And the race to see which candidate gets the state`s six electoral votes is expected to be pretty close. In 2000, Bush won by 50,000 votes.