By CQ Staff

Our series talking with political observers about what’s on voters’ minds in the Super Tuesday states continues with a look at the Midwest.

Most states holding events on Super Tuesday are staging primaries, but that is not the case in the Midwest. Only two of the five Super Tuesday states in the region, Illinois and Missouri, are holding primaries. Minnesota, North Dakota and Kansas are staging party caucuses instead — and Kansas is holding only a Democratic event.

The wide range of states in the Midwestern region produces a wide range of issues. Illinois, Missouri and Minnesota have major metropolitan cities and long-entrenched manufacturing industries, and the nation’s economic struggles are causing particular consternation in these areas. But these states also have large agricultural sectors, which are even more of an element in Kansas and North Dakota.

The states also cover a wide range of political views and partisan preferences. Illinois in recent years has developed a strong Democratic lean, and both of the remaining Democratic presidential contenders have close ties to the state: Hillary Rodham Clinton was raised in suburban Chicago, while Barack Obama , whose political base is on the South Side of Chicago, is a freshman senator from the state.

At the other end of the spectrum are Kansas and North Dakota, two of the sturdiest Republican Party bastions in presidential politics, though Democrats have proven capable of winning other statewide offices in both states. In the middle are the classic swing states of Missouri and Minnesota, which has a Democratic lean but one that is less than overwhelming: Republican Tim Pawlenty is the state’s two-term governor, Republican Norm Coleman is seeking re-election to the U.S. Senate this year — and the Republican National Convention will be held in the state’s capital city of St. Paul in September.

Here is CQ Politics’ roundup of the Midwestern states:

ILLINOIS

Chris Mooney

Professor of Political Studies

University of Illinois at Springfield

Illinois has had a “crumbling manufacturing economy here for many years, and that’s always a concern. We’re continually losing manufacturing jobs.”

But Mooney said voters have been consumed more by parochial issues. The state has been grappling with a long transit funding crisis, and Democratic Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich continues to be nagged by questions about his and his administration’s ethical conduct. “It’s more of those local issues that are on political people’s minds . . . Politics in Illinois is really nuts and bolts, who gets what — and presidential politics and even congressional politics is sort of beside the point.”

Kent Redfield

Professor of Political Studies

University of Illinois at Springfield

“It’s a state of regions. We’re real big in corn and soybeans in downstate Illinois, and ADM [Archer Daniels Midland] is a major ethanol producer . . . Certainly in downstate Illinois, those are important issues. That’s a big part of the Republican electorate; it’s not as big a part of the Democratic electorate. About 60 percent of the Democratic vote is going to be in Cook County [which includes Chicago], as far as the primary is concerned.”

“It’s a major transportation state, in terms of roads and airlines and shipping and everything else.“

“Rural Illinois is really losing population and is depressed economically. The suburbs are booming and the city is stable.”

But Redfield also said Illinois’ economy is not struggling as much as Michigan’s, where job loss and the decline of manufacturing industries were the top issues in a primary held Jan. 15. “The economy is not so bad that it’s kind of a Michigan sort of thing, and there’s not a particular issue that’s energizing people . . . There’s nothing that makes us unique in terms of this go-around.”

MISSOURI

Robert Dewhirst

Professor of Political Science

Northwest Missouri State University

“In many ways [Missouri] is a microcosm of the whole country. Going back throughout the 20th century, on a presidential level, whoever has won the presidency has carried Missouri in every election except ’56, when [Democratic nominee Adlai] Stevenson carried Missouri [over Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower]. So we are the bell-iest of the bellwether states. We have urban areas in St. Louis and Kansas City, suburban areas surrounding them, and then in the opposite corner from me we have the Bootheel, which culturally, agriculturally, socially . . . there’s a trench from there right on down to Mississippi. Northern Missouri is more like the Upper Midwest.”

“In terms of the big issues, we’re pretty much on parallel with the rest of the country. We do have a big social conservative vote here . . . although we did, barely, get a stem cell research referendum through this past time, but it barely passed . . . About five or six years ago, we had a proposed constitutional amendment to allow carrying and concealing handguns, and that lost, but it was one of the most spectacular divisions — the urban areas opposed it and the rural areas overwhelmingly favored it, and it barely lost . . . We’re very much an evenly divided state.”

“And the economy, Missouri is struggling like the rest of the country. I don’t know of any really spectacular window-rattling issue that would take your breath away here.”

Dave Helling

Political Reporter

Kansas City Star

“If you get outside Kansas City and St. Louis, the major urban areas, you will find some concerns about illegal immigration, particularly in . . . more rural areas, and that may swing some votes.”

Helling said Republican presidential candidates have not been as active in the state as the Democrats, somewhat lessening the importance of social issues for the primaries. “For whatever reason, Republicans have not been as aggressive in Missouri as the Democrats have been and for that reason you don’t see quite as much on social issues as you might otherwise.”

“I think you get more a sense of just the middle-class unease, the same sort of stuff you hear nationwide, that you’re working harder, you’re not getting ahead, I’m one paycheck away from disaster. Health care remains a problem, taxes are too high, that kind of thing. And just that general sense of concern and malaise is part of, certainly, the Democratic primary — and even to some degree the Republican primary.”

“There is a weariness, really, with the war. But there always is in Missouri a strong residual report for the troops and support for the military broadly and support for military spending, that type of thing, even among Democrats . . . You don’t get the sort of California liberal give-peace-a-chance types here at all . . . Remember, Missouri has — like a lot of states in the Midwest — a sort of gun-rights, the military, support our troops contingent, and that remains strong. There are military retirees, you do have a major Air Force base near here, Whiteman Air Force Base with the B-2 bomber, but by and large I think there is a sense even among Republicans and certainly among Democrats that the time has come sort of to move on out of Iraq.”

MINNESOTA

Rachel E. Stassen-Berger

Political Reporter

St. Paul Pioneer Press

(Stassen-Berger is a granddaughter of the late Harold Stassen, who served as a Republican governor of Minnesota and later became a perennial presidential candidate.)

“Minnesota voters are thinking about the Iraq War and all the issues that other voters are thinking about, but, more specifically, our transportation infrastructure is more on our minds [after the deadly I-35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis on Aug. 1.] The collapse has really centered people’s attention on infrastructure questions, both on a state level and a national level.”

“We have a governor [Republican Tim Pawlenty ] who has held the line on taxes and that’s a struggle on our state level . . . The ‘taxes’ focus and the ‘economic’ focus in some ways are playing off each other and in some ways are in conflict with each other. People want more, when they’re feeling unsure, people want more help from the government, but at the same time they don’t want their personal taxes to go up.”

On the state’s presidential caucus system: “Unlike many general elections or primaries, it’s not a race to the middle. It’s more appealing towards those who are very much tuned in.”

David Schultz

Program Director, Advanced Studies in Public Administration

Hamline University

“There’s a perception — more of a fear at this point — that things aren’t doing well [in the economy] . . . There are enormous numbers of houses that are just not selling in the Twin Cities or in the seven-county metro region any more.” The Iraq War remains a top issue for Democrats, while Republicans are more concerned about immigration issues, Schultz said.

Although Minnesota remains overwhelmingly white, the state has seen a large influx of Hispanics, Somalians and Southeast Asians. “On one level, immigration, for Republicans, still remains a buzz factor or a concern. Whether or not it’s a real substantive one, of course, I leave that up to other people to make a decision.”

Steven Schier

Professor of Political Science

Carleton College

Unemployment went up substantially in December and for the first time in years it is above the national average. “That, coupled with the collapse of the housing market — that’s certainly been true in the Twin Cities area as well — makes the economy a top issue out here.”

Schier said issues will not drive the caucus-goers, that it’s going to come down to which candidate has the superior campaign infrastructure, who is spending time in the state and to which portion of the state party they are appealing. For Democrats, Obama is reaching out to young voters and those in the Twin Cities area while Clinton does better with women and older voters and with party members outside the Twin Cities.

KANSAS (Democratic-only caucuses; Republicans caucus on Feb. 9)

Joe Aistrup

Chairman, Department of Political Science

Kansas State University

“Kansas City is the major economy [of the state]. The damage to the technology sector has hurt. But the lower interest rates should enable more Kansans to purchase homes.”

“[Kansas residents] might be a little more conservative than some. There is general sentiment to leave Iraq behind, but they understand that they have to remain. People are resigned to the reality of the issue. While there are ones that say leave Iraq, most people are in the middle.”

Allan Cigler

Professor of Political Science

University of Kansas

“There isn’t a hot button issue this year. The [state’s] economy is in good shape.”

“There is no driving national issue. People are upset at the conduct of war. There is a sense that this state is going to feel a national recession. But there is nothing overriding that is driving Democrats.”

Tim Carpenter

Reporter

Topeka Capital-Journal

“This housing thing is less of an issue in Kansas as it is in other states. I don’t think you had as many people speculating in half-a-million dollar homes in Kansas as in California or Florida.”

“The economy is aviation, oil and gas and agriculture. They are desperate in Wichita for aviation employees. They are drilling all over Kansas. The mixed bag in ethanol is driving up field crops, and wheat is worth more. [The State legislature] is talking about more tax cuts. They can’t be desperate.”

“The governor [Democrat Kathleen Sebelius ] talks frequently about education and health care, which gets residents excited. There are thousands of people that don’t have health care for their kids. People are concerned with the availably of health insurance for poor working families and children.”

NORTH DAKOTA

Jack Zaleski

Editorial Page Editor

Fargo Forum

“A major concern I hear when I talk to people is health care. That’s an economic issue, but [health care] seems to supercede what we’re hearing across the nation. Health care is a concern, a real concern out here.”

“Gas prices are driving people nuts out here because of distances and climate. It’s cold out here, and when it’s 20 below zero . . . cars burn more fuel. It’s one of those simmering irritants that evolve into anger over time. You can’t take public transportation out here, other than buses in Fargo. There’s no commuter rail services. It gets expensive. This also gets expressed in agriculture, because agriculture is a big fuel-use activity.”

“We’re in a major agriculture state, so the farm bill has been a big issue. The threat of a veto from the president is [angering people] across the board, Democrat or Republican, because the agriculture community, agri-businesses, small-town farm bankers, processers up and down small town farm communities like this farm bill, like it a lot. They’re angry the president seems to want to gut it.”

“We have a large presence of National Guard and they’ve been mobilized again and again. There’s a story every week of those coming home or leaving western Minnesota or eastern North Dakota.”

Mark Jendrysik

Chairman, Department of Political Science

University of North Dakota

“Here, [with agriculture] the economy is doing fairly well; it’s not a central concern. The war is a concern. Not a lot of support for immediate withdrawal, but concern for how long it will go on.”

On voting: “When it’s 10 below outside, it’s going to be hard to get people out.” (This could skew things to the urban centers.) “Caucuses depend on who gets people out. The only organization I’m seeing on campus is for Obama. Get those people out, a few hundred students out, and that will have a big effect in a state like this.”

Bob Benenson, Greg Giroux, Marie Horrigan, Lauren Phillips and Marc Rehmann contributed to this article.