I normally avoid politics (along with religion and sex, of course) at square dances. But here’s a story about democratic square dancers in Arizona: Democratic gays dance to different tunes.

Just in case the link goes down, here’s the story:

Seth Levine has been calling square dances for gay and lesbian enthusiasts in this desert city for 15 years now.

It’s late on Sunday afternoon in the Lawson Hall of the Augustana Lutheran Church, and – hand in pocket – he is on the mike, intoning the moves for the dancers to follow.

There is cake and soda to keep the 30 or 40 members going through their laid-back practice session. But while they lock hands and spin in time to “Love Lifted Me”, they have some rather more violent emotions simmering when it comes to politics.

“I hate Bush more than I have hated any politician ever. It makes me physically sick to see him on television,” said 39-year-old Linda Fitzgerald, one of the three lesbian co-founders of Arizona Gays 4 Dean, a Yahoo! Groups discussion forum.

But she’s been going through another crisis in recent days that’s tested her loyalty to the former Democratic front-runner.

“He was the man, then along came [Wesley] Clark with a better resume, and then [John] Kerry looking more presidential, so we all began flip-flopping…and then there was the scream,” she said.

Her faith is basically restored, and she was canvassing this weekend for Dean, though she still can’t understand how he “blew $40m in two states” and mismanaged the huge lead he had accumulated before the Iowa caucuses.

Her concern is backed up by yesterday’s latest poll from the Arizona Republic newspaper which puts Kerry ahead on 29%, Clark second with 20% and Dean trailing behind on 12%.

But all is still to play for, because in Arizona – the first test in the 2004 campaign of voting patterns in the US west – 22% of primary voters say they are still undecided.

The state’s growing population carries the second largest number of Democrat delegate places up for grabs in tomorrow’s seven-state contest. It voted Bush in 2000, but went for Clinton in 1996. In this polarised nation, it has become a proper swing state, although registered Republicans outnumber Democrats 41 to 35.

As they bob and weave in time to the country beats, the Desert Valley square dance party members spend time between numbers outlining who they want to see oppose their hated president.

“I was just talking to my mother, who’s a devoted Republican,” says Bahney Dedolph, 49, who left her husband – a military man – a few years ago for a new lesbian life in Phoenix.

“She says that Dean scares her, but that now she quite likes John Kerry. We need a candidate who’s not going to scare my mother. The key thing is just to beat Bush.”

Levine agrees. He was a Deaniac, but now he’s swinging towards Kerry. Another dancer who saw one of the senator’s recent “up close and personal” television appearances agrees that the Vietnam veterann is the man of the hour.

But the feeling that it was Dean who put backbone and passion back into the Democrat offensive leaves many among this cross-section of gay voters committed to him.

Sucking on a Marlboro, 40-year-old Tom Woodcock is still not sure who he will back tomorrow. He is more worried about the fight ahead, and the fact that the local economy is on an upswing that he expects can only help the Republicans.

“I sell computers to restaurants, and I’ve definitely noticed the upscale places – where people have to spend a bit more money – they’re doing well again,” he said.

Tom’s partner, Chuck Bjore, commutes up to square dance practice from the liberal citadel of Tuscon, two hours to the south. He is that rare thing in the gay community – a card-carrying Republican.

“I stay Republican partly so I can vote for moderates when we have primaries and other races, but overall I think Bush is doing a reasonable job,” he said, a comment which draws a wince from a nearby listener.

“If they could just drop the religious right and all that homophobia, I’d vote Republican in a heartbeat,” said 39-year-old Allan Kroll.

Bush has effectively written-off the gay vote because he can’t afford not to. So anxious is he to keep the evangelical millions on side, that he has hinted at changing the constitution to outlaw gay marriage.

States like Arizona are important for other minority groups that both sides need to impress. Hispanics represent 30% of the population, and the president has recently announced a plan to give legal status to millions of undocumented immigrants.

Here at the western edge of the tense contest to select a challenger, the bitter cold of the northern primaries has given way to a new, sun-drenched vista of possibilities. But a resounding Kerry victory tomorrow will be a clear sign that US Democrats are putting tactical thinking ahead of the passionate community-building of the past 18 months as personified by the former governor of Vermont.