Hard Times Shape the Views of Voters in Connecticut : Politics: The prime concern is an economy battered by the recession and a shrinking defense industry. Discontent seems to run deep.

Many Connecticut voters say they will be thinking about their state’s devastated economy when they go to the polls Tuesday to vote in the presidential primary.

Already reeling under hard times, the state was handed another dose of devastating economic news only days before the primary, when President Bush sought to scrap the $2.3-billion Seawolf submarine built in Groton.

Bush put the fast-attack submarine atop a hit list of wasteful, pork-barrel projects he wants to strike from the federal budget. Seawolf builder General Dynamics Corp., the second-largest employer in Connecticut, already has laid off about 1,600 shipyard workers over the last 21 months and plans to let another 2,200 go in April.

“Out here everybody is waiting for the ax,” said Andrew Scibelli, who for the last 38 years has run Macy’s Barber Shop across the street from the Seawolf shipyard. “What (Bush) is doing, I don’t think he wants to get elected. He has gone straight against the people.”

Connecticut tops the nation with a per-capita annual income of $25,358, but virtually everyone in the state agrees that the economy is the single most important issue in the primary.

The state has felt the slump in the defense industry: The state’s largest employer, United Technologies Corp., which makes Pratt & Whitney jet engines and Sikorsky helicopters, recently announced it would cut about 6,000 jobs throughout the state.

And the lingering New England recession has spilled into other areas--including real estate, banking and the insurance industry, much of which is based in Hartford.

United Parcel Service recently moved its headquarters from Greenwich, Conn., to Atlanta, citing high housing costs. And last week, Colt Manufacturing Co. of Hartford filed for bankruptcy, putting 925 jobs in jeopardy.

Voters say they are looking for a presidential candidate with bold leadership and a new road map to steer the nation out of recession. In interviews across the state, many expressed dismay that no such candidate has emerged.

“I don’t like the man we have in there, and I don’t see anyone else better coming along,” said Mike Cooper, a retired Navy employee. He said he is intrigued by the potential independent candidacy of Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot, who has said he will run and fund his own campaign if “ordinary people” support him enough to get him on the ballot in all 50 states.

Some residents in this state of 3.3 million people--90% of them white--are so desperate for a new face that they are distributing pamphlets calling for voters to put the name of retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf on the ballot, even though write-ins are forbidden in Connecticut.

“If all of us angry voters in Connecticut simply write in the name Norman Schwarzkopf, George Bush will get our angry message loud and clear,” said flyers printed by a group called the Crime Victims’ Action Committee. Schwarzkopf has not endorsed the effort, and he campaigned for Bush in Florida a few weeks ago.

Former Massachusetts Sen. Paul E. Tsongas had been the favorite in the Democratic race in Connecticut until he suspended his campaign last week. That turned the election upside down--even though volunteers in the state are still urging people to vote for him.

Now Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton is expected to win the Democratic primary over former California Gov. Edmund. G. (Jerry) Brown Jr., and Bush is favored in the Republican contest.

Bush grew up and attended Yale University in Connecticut--one of his “seven home states,” in the words of his GOP challenger, Patrick J. Buchanan--and the state gave him broad support in the 1988 general election.

Clinton and his wife, Hillary, also have some links to the state: They attended Yale Law School in New Haven. The Democratic front-runner has picked up key endorsements from virtually all of his party’s major political players in Connecticut, including Sens. Joseph I. Lieberman and Christopher J. Dodd.

Clinton has told crowds in the state that he supports continued production of the Seawolf submarine, a stance greeted with mixed enthusiasm.

Seawolf workers embrace any sign of support for the project, which if stopped could cost the state as many as 38,000 jobs by the late 1990s. But others accuse Clinton of merely playing up to voters and wonder whether he is sincere about preventing a shutdown of the shipyard.

“He says merely what voters want to hear,” said Scibelli, who fears losing his business if future Seawolf orders are canceled. If Bush has his way, only the one Seawolf currently under construction would be built.

An undercurrent of discontent runs deep among Connecticut voters, who are upset with the federal bureaucracy in Washington and frustrated by the state’s poor economy, said University of Connecticut pollster G. Donald Ferree Jr.

Ferree said he would not be surprised if voter turnout was as low as 25% on Tuesday.

“Before Tsongas withdrew, he had the substantial advantage of being the local guy,” Ferree said. “All of a sudden, we are forced to choose between somebody from Arkansas and somebody from California. If people are convinced the primary doesn’t make any difference, that will certainly depress turnout to a great deal.”

There is no other issue on the primary ballot--only the presidential race.

Ferree said he expects a considerable number of Democrats to cast a protest vote for Brown or Tsongas.

Brown has been active in the state, making appearances and running commercials. Brown volunteers carrying signs could be seen all over Hartford throughout the weekend.

Bill Petix, a high school remedial-reading teacher, said he likes some of the ideas Brown proposes, particularly the flat-rate income tax. Brown proposes scrapping the entire federal tax system, including Social Security, the income tax and corporate taxes, and replacing it with a single 13% income tax rate and a value-added tax--in other words, a national sales tax.

Petix said he is looking for “real change” and that he doubts whether Clinton would bring any.

“He’s not going to shake things up. He’s one of the good old boys,” Petix said. Then he added: “It’s inevitable what’s going to happen. Bush is going to get reelected, and it’s going to be politics as usual.”

Meanwhile, Tsongas’ all-volunteer campaign staff refuses to throw in the towel. Connecticut staffers have launched a drive to draft Tsongas, and they have stolen a page from Brown by starting a toll-free phone number for fund raising.

Nicholas Carbone, a former Hartford deputy mayor who is organizing the effort, said he hopes that Democrats who remain “scared” of anointing Clinton will soon line up behind Tsongas.