The Catholic Vote

Since I have spent a couple of years working with campaigns and coalitions, particularly connecting with Catholics I thought it would be worth exploring the Catholic vote in 2008.

Here is some background on the Catholic vote. When you look at the election exit polling you find the Catholic vote going back and forth between both political parties -- essentially trending to support the winner. This often leaves pundits to say there is no such thing as "the Catholic vote". This is true of those who simply identify themselves as Catholic, they are often reflecting the prevailing cultural or political opinion of the day.

However further research revealed a tangible group - those Catholic who not only self-identify as Catholics but those who are active Mass attending Catholics. This is when you begin to see patterns and shifts and a real group emerges. This constituency has been rightly termed the Catholic vote. This is a group who views the world with a similar lens based on a shared cultural, values based identity.

According to press and pundits the Catholic vote helped define many elections and I believe both parties recognize this will be the key constituency for 2008.