How the West will be won

Politics | In a tight presidential race, get-out-the-vote strategies are key to holding GOP territory, and margins could turn on minority voters and local races. First in a three-part series on battleground states | Bob Jones

DENVER - Republicans have a problem in Colorado, and her name is Maria Martinez. She's middle-class, Catholic, a mother of four. She describes herself as pro-life and thinks her taxes are too high. So why is she spending a sunny autumn afternoon at a Democratic campaign rally?

She has nothing against Pete Coors, the Republican beer baron running for Colorado's open seat in the U.S. Senate. But the mere mention of Mr. Coors's opponent makes her positively giddy.

"Do you know his last name?" she asks, pointing at the sticker on her blouse. "Salazar. Sal-a-zar. I like a last name with a z. It means he's probably one of us," she says with a self-deprecating laugh. "It's like the Italians. They always end in a vowel, we always have a z."