Posted on 03/06/2012 7:38:14 PM PST by nickcarraway
A fine new report from the Public Policy Institute of California updates what we know about the state's political geography.
For decades, the political divide in California was between the Democratic north and the Republican south. But in recent times, analysts have talked about a blue Democratic coast vs. the red Republican inland.
PPIC's new report concludes that the coast vs. inland explanation isn't exactly right.
When you dig deeply into the numbers, the state's real political divide puts the two former rivals -- Los Angeles County and the Bay Area -- on one side of the partisan divide, and the rest of the state on the other.
Even more intriguing, PPIC finds that while the state has become more Democratic, California is really only as liberal as its reputations in the Bay Area.
"In the rest of the state, even in Los Angeles County," says the report. "California is more conservative and less consistently defined by geography than conventional wisdom would sometimes suggest."
Indeed, on an ideological scale, public opinion data show the average Californians in the middle and "leaning slighty conservative."
We're right of center!
This could be an opportunity for Republicans. But many moderates and conservaitve support the Democratic party. And altering this could be hard because the Republican party may be too small an ideologically rigid to reach out.
The full report is here.
He never fooled me, not once. I went balls to the walls in 2003 exposing him as a Socialist buffoon, and he lived up to that as Governor and then some.
California dreaming.
Conservatives and moderates who continue to vote Demonratic are fools. I know, I used to be one. But hey, they’re now 1000x worse than when I left their sorry asses.
Wake up, people. Especially those of you in California.
When those 2 battle-ax liberal, senators get voted out, I’ll start believing.
All you need to know about California is that Jerry Brown, Kamila Harris and Gavin Newsome won statewide offices in 2010.
This when the GOP slaughtered the Dems in the rest of the nation.
Right of center my eye. I don’t care how you divide the bits, the fact is California is a marxist socialist enclave and sinking fast.
Right of center my eye.
Not true in the great counties of SD and OC, thank you very much! We smell salt water and are rock ribbed right!
Had Schwarzenegger not jumped into the race at the last possible moment during the 2003 recall campaign, McClintock might have won the governorship and our state's--and perhaps our nation's--history over the past decade might have been far different.
Dreams allow for inconsistencies.
CA, like most of the country, does not vote the way they believe ideologically. People are ideologically conservative on most issues. On referendum CA voters are conservative. But on candidates they are liberal. Same with much of the country.
The reason is obvious except to those in denial. Conservatives appear mean spirited and unfriendly. When we campaign on issues we win. When we go ad hominem we lose.
Ad hominem is entertaining talk radio. But it is not the way to win voters or elections.
Although Sacto is small by comparison, it is the third leg of the SF-LA-Sacto triangle of leftist lunatics. Of course, you do need to throw Mendocino, Monterey, and Santa Cruz into the leftist scrum. And probably Santa Barbara and SLO, too.
You are full of shee-it, pal.
Simple answer to your query: California tilted Democrat after 1996, when they amnestied enough of the mexican immigrants to make it a deep blue state. we forget that it was only in the 1980s that california was more of a swing state.
That hispanic voting bloc is not ideologically liberal, they are just another ethnic get-the-handout group that democrats cultivate. GOP doesnt even bother to pander so they end up unelectable.
Doesn’t that place need to tilt left in order to drop off into the Pacific?
bookmark
Sorry, looks like Motor-voter in Cali was in 1995. When non-citizens are allowed to vote, the country (State) is lost.
If teh ChiComs were to nuke L.A. and Frisco they would be doing America a huge favor.
The problem: ILLEGALS
This nonsense article is lies, darn lies, and statistics.
Yes, you are right, and I love you guys 4 that..!! ^_^
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