If Hillary Clinton is to succeed in the Maryland presidential primary - and in her quest for the Democratic nomination - it might be because of people like Carma Wilson and Marcia Massey.
Both women were standing in the entrance tunnel to a Montgomery County Metro stop before sunrise this week, shaking off the cold as they shook hands for Hillary Clinton. Both women, who are in their 50s, said this was the first time they have been actively involved in a campaign.
"I've just known all along from the time she was first lady that someday she was going to be president," said Massey, 59, of Aspen Hill. "It's been fun. It's been inspiring."
Though Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has surged in the polls in recent weeks, he has not cracked Clinton's bedrock of support among women of her generation, the first for whom the idea of a woman becoming president was more than just a fantasy. It's an advantage her supporters in Maryland - both men and women - are seeking to capitalize on.
"I'm looking forward to the day my daughters and everyone can say the words, 'Madam President,'" Gov. Martin O'Malley said to cheers at an Annapolis rally yesterday, where he was surrounded by women officeholders supporting Clinton.
Evidence of her appeal to women is hard to miss, wherever she appears.
When Clinton spoke to a crowd of students this week at Lee High School in Arlington, Va., women outnumbered men so much that reporters scoured the bleachers of the school's gymnasium looking for the odd male.
Stephanie Wong, 32, stood along a railing with her daughter, 3-year-old Iris, and husband, Joe, to watch the speech. "I was a Hillary supporter long before" the speech, Wong said. "But there's just such an energy to seeing her live that you don't see on television."
Many analysts expect Obama to best Clinton in the Maryland primary Tuesday, but there have been no recent public polls. The most recent one, conducted for The Sun in early January, showed that he enjoyed more support among women at the time than she did, with 39 percent for him and 29 percent for her.
But that was on the heels of his big win in the Iowa caucuses and before her comeback in the New Hampshire primary. Since then, said Annapolis pollster Steve Raabe, who conducted The Sun's survey, the New York senator has been corralling a greater share of women's votes, even as Obama firmed up his support among African-American voters.
"There's no doubt that many women look at Hillary Clinton as breaking that ultimate glass ceiling," Raabe said. "So there's a lot of excitement around her candidacy among women, who think that she stands a realistic chance of breaking that ceiling."
The Obama campaign is not conceding women's votes, by any means.
"I'm a very, very strong female activist, and I am about having the right person in office," said state Sen. Verna Jones, a Baltimore Democrat who heads up Women for Obama - a group of organizers she says has blossomed from just 15 a couple months ago to more than 400 now.
"He inspires me," Jones says of Obama. Though the Clinton campaign wooed her early on, as it did other elected Democrats, she said she could not warm to the New York senator, particularly because of how she handled questions about her vote to support the invasion of Iraq. She says she also felt a kinship with Obama, because he got his start in politics through community organizing, as she did.
Still, many women acknowledge the tug of gender as they ponder their choices on Tuesday.
Danielle O'Gorman, 26, of Bowie, says she's enthusiastic about voting for Clinton.
"I believe in her," she said yesterday, while listening to the speeches in Annapolis. "When I see her on TV, I think about my mom, who is Hillary's age and faced some of the same struggles she did."
Also, says O'Gorman, a political science instructor at the Naval Academy, she's drawn to Clinton's record of advocating for expanding health care. Her 4-month-old daughter, sleeping in a stroller through the rally, was born premature, she said.
Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, the former lieutenant governor, said at yesterday's rally that she supports Clinton, because of her advocacy of women's rights and her ruggedness in the face of criticism and adversity.
"And for the last 35 years, we've seen a woman who has had a lot thrown at her, and a lot of tough times, tough days," Townsend said at yesterday's rally. "But she's given us inspiration, by saying you don't give up, you don't give in, you keep fighting for people - and she's done it particularly, I have to say, for women."
Melissa Deckman, a political science professor at Washington College in Chestertown, said many women are torn. While women voters tend to support candidates with strong social-welfare and health stands, Deckman says that the policy choice is blurred because Clinton and Obama basically agree on many issues. So gender does become a factor, at least for some.
"There's a lot of debate among women activists," Deckman said. "'If I don't vote for Hillary, is this a rejection of women's activism? Is it a rejection of our principles?'"
Hilda Mwangi is one of those who says she is torn.
The 20-year-old senior at Towson University was holding a Clinton sign at the Annapolis rally yesterday, but confessed that she remains unsure whom she'll vote for on Tuesday.
"I'm Kenyan," she said, a heritage she shares with Obama.
"I'm very enthusiastic about both candidates," Mwangi said. "I love Obama for the nationalistic part, but I also admire Hillary, because she's made great strides for women."
Asked how she'll decide, the student responded: "Between now and Tuesday, that's my homework."
tim.wheeler@baltsun.com john.fritze@baltsun.com