Posted on 01/05/2017 6:36:49 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
When you first hit the road from Seattle on your way to Mason County there are lots of signs that the economy is buzzing, like construction cranes, shiny new buildings and hybrid cars.
But when you wind around past Olympia into Mason County, you're more likely to see a pickup truck with a gun rack than a Prius. And the average wage in Mason in 2015 was about half as much as in King County.
The political contrast is also dramatic. Whereas Seattle is Hillary Country, in Mason County voters bolted on a 13-point swing from Barack Obama in 2012 to Trump in 2016.
So what happened?
State Senator Tim Sheldon says the political turn in Mason County away from the Democratic Party this year has a lot to do with jobs. "This election, we had just lost in the city of Shelton 500 jobs. I mean it's a city of less than 10,000," he said....
(Excerpt) Read more at kuow.org ...
...why the Russians of course.
Ping!
In 2008 and 2012 people voted for Obama to prove they weren't racists. In 2016 they voted for Trump to prove they aren't stupid.
Interesting!
Sheldon is one of the better Democrats, coming from a more rural district in Washington state.
What about Tacoma? Is it like Seattle or more normal/conservative?
Tacoma is the blue county seat of what is an increasingly red county (Pierce).
What gets interesting is Democrats saying voting Republican is against their economic interests. Well, they voted DNC twice recently and it didn’t help them, so voting a third time would be clearly against their interest.
Tacoma is more conservative than Seattle, but basically the I-5 corridor Tacoma to Everett - with Seattle in the middle - votes blue.
Thanks for the ping, Mason County has hit the big time....sort of. Happy New Year.
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