See post 13.
Traditionally, all of Pennsylvania is red, except for Philth-adelphia, Pittsburgh, and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (and maybe Erie; I’m not sure). These areas have such a large population density, that they overpower the rest of the state.
Sounds like NY. On a county map of 2004, my state is mostly red, but the blue parts are where most of the people live. NYC controls the rest of NY most of the time.
Erie is traditionally blue. Lots of working class people, a slightly high impoverished population, a large black population, three colleges (four if you count nearby Edinboro).
That said, there is also a large Catholic population; the press about the Church and the bishops lately could help. Bishop Trautman (not considered a 'conservative' in many Catholic circles) has been involved with some pro-life events, including one where he explicitly denounced the Freedom of Choice Act.
In addition, in my time driving around, there have been very few Obama signs/stickers. There aren't many more than I saw in the primaries (when the signs/stickers I saw were about evenly split between Hillary, 0, and Ron Paul (yes, seriously)). RNC hasn't had many signs or stickers available until recently. Even so, what I've seen is probably about 3:2 for 0.
0 should be winning the non-black part of Erie by leaps and bounds (he would be winning the black part no matter what). I'd say he's in trouble in Erie.