Strongest swings, by county

[Filuwaúrdjan]

What the hell happend in Lake County?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Went from 59-39 Gore to 59-39 Bush.

Weird. Any idea why?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

As far as Jackson County Kentucky swinging towards Kerry, it didn't.  You can't just look at the % and make a blanket statement.  In 2000, it was Bush 4,079, Gore 701.  In 2004 it was Bush 4,369, Kerry 769.  That's a pickup of Bush 290, Kerry 60.  The only thing that changed is the % which change from 85% Bush to 84% Bush.  I don't think the democrats think that a net additional 230 votes for Bush is a gain for them.  The same probably applies to other Kentucky counties.

It is *technically* a swing, though as it's Jackson County it's more than a little academic...

What part of Kentucky are you from, BTW?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Jackson County, wouldn't you know.

Fits with the blue avatar

[Filuwaúrdjan]

why is that Jackson THAT Republican? That's pretty damn solid, even for Kentucky.

Mostly for Civil War reasons (very little support for slavery in the mountain counties all over the South) and because people take after their parents, who take after there parents etc. etc. etc.
It's like that in most areas to a certain degree.

IIRC pretty much all of South Central and Eastern Kentucky
was solidly Republican up until the New Deal, when the Eastern Coalfield went over to the Democrats.
South Central KY is more Agrarian and is very isolated and didn't switch.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Anyone else noticed something odd about the Raleigh, WV (Beckley) results?

Bush: 60.6%
Kerry: 38.8%

Raleigh is usually very, very close to the state average so this suprised me.
Interestingly, Kerry won about 600 more votes there than Gore did... but Bush added about 6000 more votes than 2000.

In addition to this, Joe Manchin won 63% statewide, compared with 57% in Raleigh, while Raleigh was the only county that Nick Joe Rahall lost (the GOP's sacrificial lamb in that race was an Evangelical minister. I think from Raleigh county though I'm not sure).

IIRC there's a Bible college or something similer in the county. Possibly more than one.