They worry about health care and taxes.

They wonder if they'll have enough money to pay for their college educations.

They are concerned about how far they must stretch their Social Security dollars.

Idaho voters have a lot on their minds.

In the past few weeks, on TV and in the Idaho Statesman Voter Guide, candidates have stated and restated their platforms and positions on everything from abortion to public transit.

Over the past several days, Statesman reporter Bill Roberts has traveled from Parma to Boise to listen to what the folks who will elect those politicians had to say.

He met a Nampa couple who dropped their own health insurance, but not their children's, to save money.

And he came to know 83-year-old Leola Lucas, a Meridian woman who worries about senior citizens who can no longer afford meals at a center she visits. For "so many people, that is their home," she said.

In spite of the challenges they face, many Idaho voters remain optimistic.

Meet more Treasure Valley folks who talk about what this election means to them.

JEFF HYATT

42

Farmer

Parma

Rain threatens Jeff Hyatt's kidney bean crop.

The cost of fertilizer he uses on land he farms near Parma - some in partnership with his father-in-law - has tripled in the past year.

Commodity prices are slipping. Production costs aren't. Still, the price of alfalfa, much of which he exports to Asia, is decent.

Hyatt isn't complaining. He's always wanted to be a farmer, and he moved from Pennsylvania to Idaho in the mid-1990s so he could get enough land to become one. He farms 1,200 acres, about half of which he owns.

"(It's) high stakes ... a lot of pressure," he said. "But I like it."

But as the election nears, what he doesn't like is Republican presidential candidate John McCain bad-mouthing farm subsidies.

McCain singled out government subsidies to sugar beet farmers recently as an example of wasteful government spending.

Hyatt, however, says those price supports - he jokingly calls them his welfare payments - are vital to a farmer's success when prices sag.

"In bad years we are very dependent on support payments from the government," Hyatt said. "He has stated he's not much for farm programs."

The next round of politicians elected to office must help farmers by easing costly regulations and being better stewards of the public's money, Hyatt believes.

"There is too much regulation and too much Environmental Protection Agency and too many taxes," he said. "We can't handle that. We don't need any more taxes."

TIMM AND LACY PEARSON

Both 29

real estate agents

Nampa

Timm and Lacy Pearson carry health insurance on their children, but not on themselves. It's too costly for the pair of self-employed real estate agents.

The real estate business, which looked so promising when the Pearsons started six years ago, has slowed down amid a pounding from falling prices, subprime loans, a tightening mortgage market and foreclosures. Typical sales for the Pearsons have largely been replaced with sales by people hoping to keep foreclosures off their financial records.

"We've been successful, and (we're) keeping food on the table," Timm Pearson said.

Both focus on the positive, and both rely on their Christian faith for strength.

But as the economy retrenches, the Pearsons have put their children ahead of themselves. Five-year-old Trevyn and 3-year-old Alyvia are provided for if they should get sick.

Health care is a big issue for the young parents. They've heard John McCain talk about a $5,000 tax credit to help families buy their own insurance. They know Barack Obama proposes a health care package to cover many people who can't afford insurance.

They aren't sure what to think.

"It's all talk at this point," Lacy Pearson said.

"That's the most difficult part about choosing between any kind of a candidate at this time or any time," Timm said. "Until they get there and do the job, you don't know what to expect."

Nonetheless, they'll be out on Nov. 4 casting a ballot.

"Am I going to vote? Yes," Timm said. "Do I feel like it's going to make a difference? No."

LEOLA LUCAS

83

Meridian

Leola Lucas is a lifelong Democrat in a highly Republican state. "I'm brave," she said.

But no matter who gets into office, Lucas wants assurances politicians will leave Social Security - her economic lifeblood - alone.

"We've paid into it for years," she said. "We did not go out and buy things we couldn't afford."

But as part-time receptionist at a local senior citizen center, she has watched the number of people who come by for meals decline as the center has been forced to increase prices.

"We lost a lot of them," she said. For "so many people, that is their home."

Living in a world of rising prices is hard for senior citizens. "I have a little dog. ... He eats better than I do," she said.

Actually Lucas and her poodle, Jake, both eat the chicken she cooks. But "it's something when you are working for a dog," she said.

Come November, Lucas plans to stay close to her Democratic roots. As for Republicans, she says, "How could they have done much worse?"

She watched John McCain and Barack Obama debate last week and wasn't impressed with the 72-year-old Republican.

"When you get into your 70s - especially a man - they get grumpy. He was grumpy."

As a child growing up in the Depression, she remembers hard times. She's worried the country may be headed for another one, and she wonders how people raised in a cushier era will fare. "These young people, bless them, they don't know how to take care of themselves," she said. "We would have had a garden. You do with less."

JULIAN RODRIGUEZ

19

Communications major, Boise State University

Julian Rodriguez knows he's fortunate. He's attending Boise State University on a passel of scholarships that mean his education is costing him practically nothing. But he also knows other people aren't as lucky.

A fellow Minico High School student from his hometown Rupert - who is very smart at math - is at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls because she couldn't afford Boise State, he said.

Those are the kinds of stories Rodriguez wants the politicians running for office to know about if they win in the first presidential election in which Rodriguez will cast a ballot.

The cost of education is keeping some people from fulfilling their dreams, or they are paying a heavy price in debt to achieve them, he said.

"Some of my best friends here are paying their whole way through college with little help from financial aid," he said. "A whole bunch of my friends are getting stressed out about having to pay and having to watch what you spend."

A few years down the road, scholarships could be harder to come by, and Rodriguez could find himself in the same situation, he said.

Idaho public university tuition remains a relative bargain compared with surrounding states, but students are also seeing steady increases in the amount they must pay for school.

As costs rise, Rodriguez sees friends whose dreams of getting a degree are in jeopardy.

"I worry for my friends, too, because what happens if they say, 'College is too expensive. I can start making $7.50 over here at McDonalds - why don't I just do that?' That could be alluring, too."

KEVIN SETTLES

50

Owner, Bardenay, Boise, Eagle and Coeur d'Alene

While restaurants around him are closing their doors, Kevin Settles' Bardenay - a restaurant and distillery - is on track to have its best year ever.

"If you're running a business well and paying attention to the cost of goods and adjust on a regular basis, it is not so bad," he said.

Nonetheless, he'd like a little more stability in the country, and he worries how some candidates' health insurance proposals will affect his business.

"If nothing else, just knowing who is going to lead the country for the next four years is huge," he said.

But one proposal to tax health care premiums has him concerned. He offers free heath care insurance to his salaried employees. "We struggle hard to provide health insurance," he said.

If the government decides to tax the money he pays in premiums, it could affect the insurance he provides, he said. "We'd probably have to modify the plan we have," he said. "We have a relatively low deductible.

"I can understand where the thought behind that comes from, but it's regressive if the whole goal is to provide insurance to as many people as possible."