Victor Walker, left, a former Cochise County Democratic Party chairman, meets with Charles Fisher to get Fisher's signature on petitions. Walker says that when the topic of immigration comes up, even Democrats sound a firm note in the county. "The common theme is, 'People broke the law, they should be treated like lawbreakers,' " Walker says.

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SIERRA VISTA — When Victor Walker knocks on the doors of fellow Cochise County Democrats to talk about his candidate of choice for Congress, the topic quickly turns to immigration.

"The common theme is, 'People broke the law, they should be treated like lawbreakers,' " says Walker, former Cochise County Democratic Party chairman. "They want to vent. The issue comes home particularly when your property is being trashed. They don't like that."

The tough talk by Democrats in border areas of the state is in striking contrast to the way liberals tackle the issue in nearby Tucson, or for that matter, in Washington. Elsewhere, they use words like compromise and comprehensive. In this neck of the woods, Democrats talk enforcement.

And it isn't just Democrats who differ, party leaders and political experts say. Rural Republicans are their own breed, too.

With the political climate uncertain and immigration taking center stage as the issue of the 2006 election season, it's folks outside metropolitan Tucson and Phoenix who could impact Arizona's congressional and statewide races, they say.

Party activists down here say candidates have been frequenting the area even though the primary is months away.

Voters outside Pima County make up nearly 20 percent of the electorate in District 8 — the hotly contested race for Congress. In Cochise County, which has about 62,000 registered voters compared with Pima's more than 300,000, Democrats and Republicans are almost evenly split, with a large block of independents. District 8 also stretches into parts of Pinal and Santa Cruz counties.

In terms of politics, the Cochise County region is richly diverse, providing a wild card for candidates: from Sierra Vista's conservative military population and Tombstone's frontier mentality to the arts community of Bisbee and the border town of Douglas.

Still, rural Democrats and Republicans might be more alike than they'd like to admit.

"I think it's hard to change your party ID, so their voting habits are fairly inconsistent," said David Berman, professor emeritus of political science at Arizona State University, where he has studied state politics for years.

Connecting with rural voters as a Democrat is a struggle, says Jerry Covey, chairman of the Cochise County Democratic Party.

While urban Democrats tend to be "elite liberals," rural Democrats are more conservative, he says.

Take Joe Garcia, a 69-year-old registered Democrat in Naco, who can see the Mexican border from his home.

A retired miner, Garcia's parents were legal immigrants from Spain, and he says he has no tolerance for those who come here illegally from Mexico — or the marches held nationwide in support of illegal immigrants.

"I listen to the McCain and Kennedy reform plan — they're making it so complicated," he says. "If there is someone who wants to come to the United States, come the right way."

And on the issue of gay marriage, Garcia say he will vote for an amendment declaring marriage in Arizona as between a man and a woman if it makes it on the ballot.

"I think that if God wanted a man to marry a man or a woman to marry a woman, he wouldn't have made two different kinds," he says.

It's social and cultural issues in particular that set Democrats out here apart, Covey and others say. Democrats here supported John Kerry for president in 2004, but weren't too excited about the Massachusetts senator, he says. And many, he says, crossed over to support retiring Republican Jim Kolbe for Congress through the years.

So Covey, who has been working with a consultant out of California to complete a study on rural Democrats, has been trying to convince the party to take a more serious look at winning in places like Cochise County.

"It seems like the party always wants to gear up for the urban areas and ignores the rural areas," he said.

Not this time. The Democratic candidates for District 8 — Gabrielle Giffords, Jeff Latas, Dwight Leister, Alex Rodriguez, Francine Shacter and Patty Weiss — have been spending time in the area, attending small-town picnics and parades.

And even with the talk about rural Democrats being more conservative, it's a consistent strategy that sells, says Jonathan Neal, spokesman for Giffords.

"We think the vast majority want some-way fair to treat people who are here," said Neal, adding that enforcement is part of Giffords' pitch about the border. "It's not like we're in Tucson stressing a guest-worker plan and in Cochise County stressing border security. We're stressing the same thing everywhere."

In 2004's District 8 primary election, former state Rep. Randy Graf beat incumbent Kolbe with 53 percent of the Republican vote in Cochise County, but lost districtwide.

This time around, the Graf campaign is hitting the area hard again. A hawk on border enforcement, Graf has expanded his base here as immigration has moved from being a local to a national issue, said David Stevens, chairman of the Cochise County Republican Party.

Kolbe's retirement also raises Graf to the candidate with the strongest name ID, he said.

"With the number of people in the race, if they don't win Cochise County they won't win the nomination," Stevens predicted.

That's why the other Republican candidates in the race — Frank Antenori, Mike Hellon, Steve Huffman and Mike Jenkins — are all taking the area seriously, Stevens said.

Margaret Kenski, pollster for Sen. Jon Kyl's re-election campaign, who has spent 25 years polling Arizona voters, agreed Cochise could swing the outcome.

"Obviously, if things are tight in Pima County, Cochise will determine the election," she said.

But winning also means appealing to more than just those passionate about the border.

"Obviously this race is about much more than illegal immigration," said Steve Aiken, campaign manager for Graf. "We're not taking anything for granted."