I was feeling a bit deprived of visual stimulus inside Sunset Bowl Wednesday night. I saw this group of shadowy guys hanging out on an old car out back, near where people went outside to smoke. I felt a little nervous about approaching them, but put my best photographer face forward and went for it. They turned out to be the nicest group of young guys I’d met so far in Phoenix. They were all Phoenix natives and all Navajos. “We’re not just Phoenix natives. We’re American natives,” exclaimed Kyle Yazzie, left, when I asked if they had grown up in Phoenix. “We’ve been hanging out here since we got cars. This is our spot,” explained Yazzie about the empty lot behind the bowling alley, seen here with his little brother, Jacob. When I asked them about the election this year, Kyle, 21, seemed pretty disillusioned about the whole thing. He didn’t plan on voting. “Why should I? My vote doesn’t matter, anyways.”
Thursday, Aug. 14, 2008 | 5:30 p.m.
Sun Expanded Coverage
(The Sun has gone on the road to listen to voters and talk to political leaders around the West. Reporters will examine the economic, cultural and demographic forces re-shaping the region as they drive to Denver for the first of the two major party conventions the Sun will cover.)
PHOENIX -- We went to a bowling alley to meet some transplated midwesterners. Arizona is filled with them, and unlike years past, when they were mostly snowbirds, a younger crop of people is moving here.
Matt Callahan sells air-conditioning and came from Connecticut, by way of Michigan. He said he's often astounded at how the infrastructure hasn't caught up to the growth. Bad schools, not enough cops, not enough roads and other transit options. He said that because his taxes are so low, he would be willing to pay higher taxes for better services and infrastructure. He's pretty much a western libertarians' nightmare. This should spell trouble for Republicans.
But maybe not this November. Callahan said he is no fan of Arizona Sen. John McCain, but is leaning toward voting for him because Illinois Sen. Barack Obama doesn't have enough experience, and doesn't have a "game plan."
If McCain can win white, middle class men in big numbers (+10), he has a good shot at winning.
Callahan is an excellent bowler, by the way.
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