It is also an issue that could prompt hard-core Republicans to come out for Ms. Smith on Tuesday.

"But I made a lot of friends over the years in Suffolk County, including some hard-core Republicans, and I'm going to miss them."

But in many states, like Georgia, Mr. McCain's supporters said they had all but given up trying to woo hard-core Republicans.

For hard-core Republicans the big issues are the big tax cuts and the opportunity to raid Social Security, one of the Democratic Party's proudest achievements.

At which point he found out that she was a long-term and equally hard-core Republican.

While it has enough votes to pass, it may not have enough to avoid a filibuster by hard-core Republicans.

They thought I was probably a hard-core Republican, which is nothing further from the truth.

A financier who favors drug outreach and child abuse programs, he advocates Government spending that could send a hard-core Republican into a cold sweat.

She continued, "I guess that puts me in a box of being hard-core Republican."

Both oppose abortion, for example, but they couch their conservative stands in ways that do not threaten those who are not hard-core Republicans.