The vote in statewide elections in Virginia turns on middle-of-the-road voters.

For electoral success, both parties need to tap into the great reservoir of middle-of-the-road voters, and those voters, every poll shows, are sick to death of the trial.

But Mr. Teeter says that in an election dominated by middle-of-the-road voters, the one thing a candidate has to avoid is the image of extremism - "on anything."

Ultimately, both parties face the same challenge: how to keep the support of their cultural and political extremists without giving them so much power that they alienate the middle-of-the-road voters.

His advisers thought the Democratic president needed a progressive Republican to attract middle-of-the-road voters.

Where Greenberg contends that "downscale" voters provided Clinton's margin of victory, Penn argues it was middle-income, middle-of-the-road suburban voters who swung the election.

Such changes would be intended to appeal to middle-of-the-road British voters.

The "family values" appeal simply became too rough, too exclusionary, too out of step with the middle-of-the-road suburban voters who were an important part of the Reagan coalition, they argue.

Even some middle-of-the-road voters, whether they submit punch cards or poke an electronic screen, will pause to wonder what's going on under the hood of their voting system.

"She's a very alienating figure for middle-of-the-road voters because she comes across as shrill and strident and bossy and hectoring," Mr. Harris said.