Ethnically, it is not all that different from SW Virginia except for a substantial Amish population. But generally, Amish do not vote, so I don't think that can explain it.
What sickens me is that Steele could have won that election with a shift of about 4% of the African-American electorate who stuck with a while lieberal instead. It wasn't for lack of an attractive alternative in Michael Steele.
I don't know anything about those three counties, but I suspect that although they are Appalachian Counties, they have not been as culturally isolated over the years from the national political scene as Southwest Virginia has, and are more much accepting of a black candidate.
SWVA is a region of extremes, and unfortunately, like I said in my last post, its people are still living in JFK and Lyndon Johnson's time politically, but have never gotten past the Civil Rights laws that were shoved down their throats. I know that it is a big contradiction since it was JFK and LBJ that did the shoving, but again, that's just the way it is there.