Posted on 11/04/2004 6:54:58 AM PST by TonyInOhio
Here's how we did it, FReepers:
Canton and Massillon were once BIG steel towns, and you know THAT story lately. N. Canton, also in Stark Co. is home of the Hoover Co. and there were recent, very recent, layoffs there. Diebold Co. is also in Canton, a mfg. concern as well. Lots of lame old strong labor ties here even though labor unions have systematically driven the jobs away with their over the top and unreasonable demands on the companies. You never met such a bunch of rabid, ill informed and blindly Roosevelt type Democrats in your life.
I used to live in Dublin, which was reliably Republican. Even Ohio State in the mid-80's was balanced and Columbus had a popular Republican Mayor. Also lived in Bexley and then Fairfield Cty (Pickerington), which is Pubbie territory.
My dad lives in Lake Township and his neighborhood was all B/C signs, but I did notice down into North Canton and Canton it was more Kerry this year than it was Gore in 2000.
Used to live in UA - it seems the perfect example of Bush country. Too many self-enlightened OSU types there now?
As a former resident of Clark County (Wright-Patterson AFB), can I thank the Brits? This is great news to all the Republicans in the western/southern part of the County that had to put up with Springfield tipping the balance.
Square miles of counties won:
Bush 3.28 million
Kerry 741,000
NOTE; This is NOT the final map. Gray area results are not yet included and Alaska is blank.
I have a hard time believing that the map's legend matches with the map. More than 20% gain in Democrat support since 2000 in Montgomery County (Dayton)? Kerry only won the county by 3500 votes (51%-49%). The county party head was bragging about cutting that down from 2000. I'm trying to track down the 2000 results.
Dayton is as much a blight on the State of Ohio as Cleveland IMHO. Surrounding areas of Dayton are Republican but you will never change that city. Blacks on the west and the union workers on the east part of the city. I had a hard time coming up with a name for the east side having lived in Beavercreek -- didn't want to say the name that was normally used -- PC here for today.
If you add up the margins in Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont counties you will see that the total is greater than the margin of victory in the state. In other words, we Cincinnatians gave you George W. Bush as president. You are welcome.
Things have changed. Greg Lashutka was the last Republican mayor, coming in after Rinehart and Moody. The local Republican party couldn't even field a candidate to challenge Michael Coleman the last time around. Having met and talked with him my impression is that Mike's a good guy personally, from what I've seen and heard, a family man, honest, has some measure of integrity, is a man of faith. But he's just uber-liberal on all issues, so I can't support him politically.
It was an incredible turnout, indeed.
What was hard to see on this map was the increased turnout in rural counties. For example, my home county, Putnam, went 73% for President Bush in 2000. This year, he earned 76%. Similar increases occurred in most rural counties, thanks to the GOTV effort.
Proud to report that in my State of Oklahoma not one county went to Kerry. In fact, the Oklahoman had in the paper this morning that in Oklahoma counties with 80%+ Dem registration, Kerry was lucky to get 35% of the vote.
Wow, what a dramatic change since 1996!
You are correct. Bush's margin in SW Ohio (Hamilton, Butler, Warren, and Clermont counties) was 154,733. Given that Kerry made significant gains in Franklin and Cuyahoga counties, Bush could not have won the state without SW Ohio giving him votes to offset those gains.
Living in Franklin county (Dublin), it's tough being so conservative but being lumped in with the likes of other Franklin county 'areas' that make it nigh impossible to beat out the lib vote. Namely, OSU campus, Upper Arlington (osu profs), Gerbil.. I mean German Village (no explaination needed), Short north (large gay population).
The sad thing, directly across the street from me is Deleware county, highly conservative as well, but ALL of their county votes conservative.
I moved to Dayton in 1984, ostensibly from AZ. (I taught for a year in Wisconsin, 60 miles from the nuthouse of Madison, in the UW system, but this was my first "real" job at a university).
I never liked Ohio. I never felt like an Ohioan. I longed for the day I could return to Arizona, my desert, my cactus, and my mountains. Green grass and trees bothered me!
I prayed daily for God to return me to my home. I prayed for the financial independence to retire to Phoenix early. It did not come. It was as though God rooted me here, and thwarted my every move out.
On Tuesday, the veil was lifted. Please---I don't mean to say that I'm important or that THOUSANDS of other people might not have similar stories, just that this is mine. On Tuesday, I worked, for the first time in 30 years, in a political campaign because the stakes were just too high.
On Tuesday, I became an Ohioan.
On Tuesday, I realize that God had put me here---and thousands like me, many against our personal desires---for one reason only: to stand in the gap against evil. I guarantee that if many of us could be instant millionaires, many people would move to other parts of the country. But on Tuesday, God needed us HERE. On previous days when I walked precincts and made a few calls---nothing compared to what some brave footsoldiers did---and on Tuesday, when I flushed precincts, taking critical data back to headquarters that showed me WE HAD WON, I realized that God had maneuvered not just me, but thousands of individual lives, to affect a great victory, not just for our state, and not just for our nation, but for all of mankind.
From this point on, I'm an Ohioan, and proud of it.
I knew that the greater Cincinnati area would come through. No doubt in my mind at all that my hometown folks would deliver us to the promise land! BTW, I'm down here in the panhandle of Florida. We came through for the President as well. The panhandle of Florida voted 70% for Bush!
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