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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: California Housing Slump, Illinois Job Losses Buffet Candidates Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Super Tuesday, when about half the Democratic and Republican delegates are at stake in the U.S., is billed as a national presidential primary. When it comes to economic issues, it's an amalgam of very different contests. Falling home values and the collapse of the subprime- mortgage market are the major worries in several states, including the biggest prize on Feb. 5, California. A slowing automotive industry and manufacturing-job losses dominate Midwestern states like Illinois and Missouri, and parts of the South. Financial industry losses are a burden in the Northeast. ``Conditions vary widely across the country, from a deep recession in the Central Valley of California to still boom-like conditions in parts of the Farm Belt,'' said Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody's Economy.com in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Unemployment among states voting on Feb. 5 ranges from a low of 3 percent in Idaho to 6.5 percent in Alaska. Several states, including Delaware, Montana, New Mexico and Utah, have jobless rates below 4 percent. Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri and Tennessee are among those with rates above the national average of 5 percent. A national recession looms, especially after the government reported this week that fourth-quarter growth was at a near standstill. And the economy is the most important issue countrywide among Republican voters, while it's almost tied with the Iraq war as the top concern among Democrats, according to a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll last month. Home Prices Plunge In California, which has 441 Democratic and 173 Republican delegates in play, prices of single-family homes plunged 18.3 percent in December from a year earlier, according to LoanPerformance.com. It also had the fourth-highest foreclosure rate among states last year, according to RealtyTrac Inc. California's unemployment rate, at 6.1 percent, has risen 1.3 percentage points from a year ago. ``The economy's a major issue here,'' said Allan Hoffenblum, former political director of the state Republican Party who owns a political-consulting firm in Los Angeles. ``It's housing and fear of a recession.'' Zandi said California and neighboring Arizona, which also votes Feb. 5, are already in a recession. The East Coast landscape is different. In New York and New Jersey, which combine for 153 Republican and 408 Democratic delegates on Super Tuesday, employment has held up. Their jobless rates are lower than the national average, even as the rural economies of the two states have faltered. Manufacturing Weakness Prices for single-family homes in New York rose 1 percent last year, while building permits rose 1 percent, according to the National Association of Homebuilders. Unemployment in the state, at 4.9 percent, rose 0.8 percentage point over the year, reflecting weakness in manufacturing cities and rural towns. Prices of single-family homes fell 2.8 percent last year in New Jersey, while the homebuilders' association said building permits for those houses fell 24 percent. Wall Street, an engine of economic growth in the New York metropolitan area, has been hurt by the subprime crisis, which contributed to a 75 percent rise in the number of U.S. homeowners entering foreclosure last year, the Mortgage Bankers Association reported last month. Investment banks including Citigroup Inc. and Merrill Lynch & Co. have posted tens of billions of dollars in subprime- related losses and eliminated thousands of jobs. ``Turmoil in the financial markets has affected the financial industry, making the city and state vulnerable,'' said Jason Bram, an economist at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Jobless in Massachusetts In Massachusetts, the jobless rate fell to 4.5 percent in December from 5.2 percent a year earlier. Still, single-family home prices dropped an average 4.8 percent. In the Midwest, the auto industry's declining sales eclipse other issues. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC lost more than $15 billion combined in 2006 and are responding with buyouts, layoffs and plant closings. Michigan has the nation's highest unemployment rate, at 7.6 percent. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney capitalized on the state's predicament, leveraging promises of aid to ailing carmakers to win the Jan. 15 primary. The transportation and warehousing industries, which are big employers in Georgia and Arkansas, have suffered from soft retail sales. Agricultural industries in several Southeastern states also continue to feel the effects of a drought. Farm Belt Healthiest The economically healthiest region is the Farm Belt, stretching from the Dakotas to Texas to Idaho and Utah, Zandi said. It's benefiting from high prices of commodities such as food. As a result, the jobless rate in Oklahoma and Colorado is 4.5 percent; in North Dakota and Idaho it's below 3.5 percent. Unemployment, however, is a national concern, with the U.S. jobless rate at a two-year high and economists such as Richard Berner of Morgan Stanley pointing at the data as a sign of a recession. According to the Alliance for American Manufacturing, the 24 states voting on Super Tuesday have lost more than 1.5 million manufacturing jobs the past seven years. Five states are already in recession, representing 25 percent of the U.S. economy, according to Economy.com. ``If the candidates are prudent, they'll try to address all these issues, since they're well aware the economy is the No. 1 issue,'' said Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas in Austin.
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