"It's been the mainstay of support for urban America across the board," Mr. Cochran said.
The mainstay of support for Mr Jonathan's PDP has generally been in the more prosperous south.
Some of the nastiest conflicts erupted here in the ethnic Bete heartland, a vital cocoa zone and a mainstay of support for President Gbagbo, who is Bete himself.
Orthodox Jews have long been a mainstay of support, he said, as have yeshiva students, and they are expected to be so again this year.
Israeli officials defended the desire to encourage Israeli expatriates to return, but the reaction of American Jewry, a crucial mainstay of support for Israel, clearly caused alarm.
The Orioles no longer seem interested in the blue-collar Baltimoreans who were the mainstay of support at dingy old Memorial Stadium.
Students and young people -- a majority of the population in Iran -- have been the mainstay of support for President Khatami, who has made a concerted effort to meet with them and engage them in politics.
Most of those killed then were ethnic Tajiks, Uzbeks and Hazaras, from communities concentrated in northern and western Afghanistan that have been the mainstay of support for the political groups that now make up the alliance.
As the last of her generation by more than 25 years, she was a loving aunt to four nieces and nephews, to whom she was a mainstay of support over the years, and was great-aunt to twelve great-nieces and nephews.
The show of support for Mr. Assad in Aleppo, Syria's second largest city and a mainstay of support for his leadership, came as the Syrian National Council, a leading opposition group, said it might seek foreign intervention to stop the government's brutal crackdown on activists and protesters.
