‘Exurbs’ emerge as crucial battleground in 2008 polls

Henderson, Nevada - First came the foreclosure crisis. Next, gas prices went through the roof. Now, beleaguered Americans living on the edge of metropolitan areas face a third plague: politicians.

Political campaigns call Carrie Mercherle’s sewing machine shop in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson four or five times a day, seeking her vote in the presidential election on November 4.

“We’re just very tired of it,” Mercherle said. “It’s like, just get (the election) over with already.”

Fast-growing “exurbs” like Henderson, commuter towns outside the traditional suburban belts surrounding cities, have emerged as a crucial battleground in the 2008 election as Democrats consolidate their hold on older, inner-ring suburbs, many of which once voted reliably Republican.

Exurban and outer-suburban counties, many outside the reach of urban public transportation systems, make up 72 of the 94 most contested counties this year, according to a study by Virginia Tech’s Metropolitan Institute.

Millions of voters have moved to new developments in sprawling exurbs over the past decade, trading longer commutes for larger or less expensive houses.

But many of those houses now stand empty, thanks to the foreclosure crisis and those that do find buyers sell for less than what they would have fetched a year ago. Soaring gas prices also made those long driving commutes more expensive.

Republican President George W Bush carried exurban areas handily in 2000 and 2004, but Democrats narrowed the gap in the 2006 midterm elections that handed them control of Congress.

But Democrats see an opportunity to win these areas this year, as economic issues dominate the presidential race.

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama and their vice-presidential running mates have campaigned heavily in cities and towns that barely existed 10 years ago.

Both recently held rallies in the outer reaches of Virginia’s Washington suburbs, areas that backed Bush in 2004 but have since voted for Democratic candidates for governor and senator.

Voters are less likely to be swayed this year by social issues like abortion or gay marriage that had pushed them toward Republicans in the past, experts say.

“These are economic conservatives, they’re not social conservatives,” said George Mason University professor Michael McDonald at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

In Nevada, places like Henderson hold the balance between heavily Democratic Las Vegas and conservative rural areas. Both of the major party vice presidential candidates, Republican Sarah Palin and Democrat Joe Biden, have made stops here.

“If those areas break Democratic, that will be determinant,” said Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada in Reno.

Henderson’s population has grown by more than one-third since the turn of the century, as new residents have flocked to Las Vegas’ booming job and real estate market.

But as of last month, 3.5% of all housing units in the Las Vegas metro area were in foreclosure - the second-highest rate in the country.

“The biggest issue for me is the economy. We can’t survive without the sales,” said Mercherle, who plans to vote for McCain.

At a cafe a few blocks down the street, Alica Hudson, 18, was considering a vote for Obama. She likes his health care plan, she said, but is less enthusiastic about his stance on taxes.

I'm thinking McCain will win these areas. What say you?

I'm in Texas, so the old school suburbs and exurbs are GOP strongholds for the most part. In general, I think people who live in the exurbs tend to be conservative in outlook and friendly to the GOP. You live out there because you want to get away from crime, high taxes, and live in a healthy environment with your family. If I had to guess, I'd say a fair number of those who live out there are evangelicals. Yes, you have to drive a little more than if you lived in an urban area. That makes many sensitive to gas prices.

I see Obama failing miserably in the exurbs. His campaign has failed at courting these types of voters. It's clear that he is dismissive of these people and their concerns. He derides not just evangelicals, but anyone who is strong in their faith. Basically he seems to think that anyone who doesn't live in an urban area is a hick and a racist.

The lesson for the Democrats coming out of this election is that they still cannot count on a base which excludes white protestant suburbanites and rural residents and that mocks them. These people vote. A base that consists of some upscale neighborhoods, professors, college students, slackers, gays, and minorities is not enough.

For the last 7 years the voters of the suburbs and the exurbs have seen themselves constantly mocked by the entertainment industry. Their faith, their lifestyle, and their politics have been denigrated to no end by the far left which is ascendant in the industry and which suckles the Democrat party. The treatment of Gov. Palin is just the latest example.

I may be ahead of myself, but I think this election will be won by the Palin Republicans. That is, people who are in their late 30s to early 50s, family oriented, religious, patriotic, and entrepreneurial. These are voters who have been hurt by the recent economic turmoil, but these are people who still believe in the American Dream and who do not believe that America's best days are behind her.

There's a reason the Democrats have had a losing product usually in presidential races since the 1960s. That's because they are reflexively anti-American and anti-entrepreneur. Lately they've also become anti-faith. It's no small coincidence that the last two Democrats to win the White House have been Southern Democrats, individuals who know that you do not trash rural voters and expect to win an election.

Obama is going to be beat by a larger margin than Kerry's losing margin in 2004. He simply does not connect with middle America. On top of that, it's clear he is nothing but a racemonger and sees this country in terms of black and white. It may be a shock, but voters out in the exurbs do have the internets and don't usually get their news from the MSM.

Naturally, when Obama loses, it will be chalked up to "racism." Now, there's race at play in this race all right, but it's coming from the left side. Obama hates whites. He's said so in one of his two narcissistic tomes. He felt he had to choose a racial identity, and he chose radical black.

His campaign royally F'd up. Now, I don't think this was by accident. Obviously they know how to do some things well. Where they screwed up was in not explicitly moving past race and emphasizing that Obama represented the end of race as a divisive issue in our country. Why did they choose to do so? I believe it is because the true Obama isn't post-racial. He doesn't believe in one America. He believes in a black America which will get its justice from white America. Look at his relationships and tell me if that looks like someone who is likely to not care about race as an issue: Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers, etc... Look at his writings and his utterances. This guy is a radical left wing lunatic.

Obama has not ever faced an electorate in which he needed to win over middle America to win. He just has not. Hillary absolutely crushed him in those areas in the primaries. I agree with Bill on Obama. His campaign is indeed the "biggest fairy tale" ever.

Before the Pelosi, Reid, Frank, Dodd and Schumer Fanny/Freddie mess, I would have said McCain.

As noted, many of these people are economic and not social conservatives. Many live life styles right on the credit line edge and on as much as their home value went up. That has changed since September.

Some of our younger relatives in exurbs say there is a lot white guilt and anti Palin due to so many of the women with past abortions. Of course that might change when they are in the voting booth.

9/11, the market rebound after 9/11 and the increases in home values helped GW carry the exurbs in 2004. It is amazing how few of these people who were concerned about family safety after 9/11 are concerned about the danger Obama could bring into their life and their families. They ignore the warnings that the Rat Congress and Obama could convert their 401ks into more worthless IOUS.

The good thing about most of the exurbs out here is the failure of the rat fishwraps to have any real impact. Dish and Direct tv rule instead of cable, and that seems to dilute the liberal rantings on ABCNNBCBS.

One danger point for Obama is his future taxes. With high mortgage and property tax deductions, plus 401k deductions, a tax increase on incomes over 250k didn’t impact many.

However as Obama and Biden keep lowering that to maybe 150k, some of these people are starting to wake up. Also, many were not aware that Obama was going to let GW’s tax breaks expire in 2010. Those two combos and some healthy market gains up to election day might bring some of these economic republicans back into the fold.

“Fast-growing “exurbs” like Henderson, commuter towns outside the traditional suburban belts surrounding cities”

Moron.

Many exurbs are self-contained, with their own vibrant businesses and communities so people don’t need to “commute.” Businesses move to the exurbs because that’s where the stable labor force is. It’s the big liberal cities that are dying, with their high taxes, crime, anti-family attitudes, corrupt politicians, bureaucratic oppression and high costs.

This writer is probably too stupid to know, but not many people “commute” to Detroit from the surrounding exurbs.

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