McCain gears up quest for female vote

WASHINGTON, June 12 (UPI) -- Sen. John McCain's campaign says it will ramp up efforts to attract women voters, seen as playing a key role in U.S. presidential election in November.

Campaign officials say they hope to take advantage of women's unhappiness over Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., suspending her campaign, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

McCain's most prominent female supporter, former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, will take her female-focused political tour to Ohio and Pennsylvania, states Clinton won in Democratic primaries.

"No one should take a woman's vote for granted, and the Democratic Party should certainly not take it for granted," Fiorina said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "I'm a woman, and as a woman, I'm really proud Hillary Clinton ran for president. I am enormously proud of what she did, and frankly, I have enormous sympathy for what she went through."

Likely Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and his allies have appealed to Clinton's supporters as well. Obama senior adviser Anita Dunn said women won't have to choose between "two historic candidates" with stellar records on women's issues in November.

"We're not running against Hillary Clinton any longer, and that's not the choice women have to make," Dunn told the Post. "They're choosing between two candidates who have dramatically different records on women's issues, neither of whom are a woman."