"I vote SDLP anyway but I think she has stood up for local farmers and in a rural constituency like this, that makes her popular," said a cattle farmer.
Yet Mr. Christie, who has warred with core Democratic constituencies like the teachers' and state workers' unions, has shown crossover appeal.
Start Your Oscar Ballot In each case, there are different constituencies, like the 15 branches of the Academy (like actors, producers and directors) that vote for the awards.
It has also encouraged campaigners to concentrate on thinly populated (or thinly Conservative) constituencies like the Yukon, where it takes fewer votes to earn a "point".
They include new constituencies like the "emergent service workers", the "technical middle class" and the "new affluent workers".The two main parties are right to feel a responsibility to build society-spanning coalitions.
The state has at times allowed individual constituencies, like the banned Muslim Brotherhood, to have a voice, but with the goal of co-opting them rather than empowering them, said political experts and intellectuals, including members of the governing party.
It also greatly annoys some of President Bush's core constituencies, like the logging and mining interests, which argue that by protecting habitat for the spotted owl and other species, the law inhibits economic development.
Yet even with a unified opposition behind him, Mr. Capriles faces the steepest of uphill climbs running against the agile Mr. Chávez, who still enjoys strong support from important constituencies, like the poor people who have seen their lives improve under his government, and the government and state-owned company employees who may feel that their jobs depend on Mr. Chávez remaining president.
But Ambit and the other ESCOs operating in New York have caught the ire of state regulators and consumer advocates, who say some sales representatives, in their zeal to earn commissions, have inflated potential savings, misrepresented contracts and been overly aggressive with vulnerable constituencies like the elderly and nonnative English speakers.
He did so even though it meant taking on formidable constituencies like the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest, the sugar barons in the Florida Everglades, the big utilities and automobile companies that chafed under clean-air regulations, and the oil companies that wanted to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
