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.
50-50 chance, which is better than at any time since Reagan.
If a Republican wins CA, the dims are toast for a generation.
If the numbers I just Googled are correct, the combined population of Los Angeles county and the Bay Area is 20,661,099. I don’t know how many likely voters there are but even 20% is a lot of liberals to overcome.
California voted down homosexual marriage.
That should tell folks all they need to know about California. It IS NOT has gut and dried liberal as the Dems and the Pubbies make it out to be.
We get absolutely no public advocacy for sound principles here, and then wonder why we don’t sway the day.
We should forbid any Republican leader from remaining in, or coming to the state. We should then reorganize under the Tea Party brand and move on to better governance.
California voted down homosexual marriage.
That should tell folks all they need to know about California. It IS NOT the cut and dried liberal hell hole the Dems and the Pubbies make it out to be.
We get absolutely no public advocacy for sound principles here, and then wonder why we don’t sway the day.
We should forbid any Republican leader from remaining in, or coming to the state. We should then reorganize under the Tea Party brand and move on to better governance.
Why are Republicans red and Dems blue? Isn’t this supposed to change from election to election?
2004 Presidential election results, Bush won the red counties. The 2008 election was an aberation, a socialist highwater mark.
Sorry, but no. Barry’s approval rate with Californians is among the highest besides NY, IL, MA, and HI. If RR ran today for President today he’d lose CA big time. It’s best to concentrate on the rest of the country and not waste previous resources here. We still can get 350+ EV even without CA, NY, IL, and MI.
I live in CA and am registered Republican.
I am TEA Party and from Virginia.
I loathe Libs and so do a lot of us.
The Pelosi/Jerry Brown/Hollyweird freaks get all the publicity, there are more of us than you would believe.
I hate the place, however.
Boxes of Republican ballots found floating in San Francisco Bay
Demwits couldn’t win anywhere without cheating until they raised up a bunch of communists in our public schools.
The little leftists are now big leftists, and they vote. Too bad they weren’t taught to think for themselves, but to look
to the mainly slime media. The poor fools swallow the kool-aid every time and participate in their own destruction.
Unfortunately, ours too.
A very intelligent and well written other side of the issue. Thank you. You have some good points.
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