Talk Elections

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Based on looking at 2008 and 2012 city and county results, I've come up with this. Gray states are uncertain.

Any particular reason why Jefferson City, Missouri is so right-wing?

I have no clue why Jefferson City is even the capital of Missouri.  It should be St. Louis.  Jefferson City has like what, 10,000 people?

Jefferson City is over 70% white, and is highly Catholic (in a religiously conservative way). It's a small city with relatively few transplants and a lot of people who have long-time roots in the city.

SLC should definitely be red; it was nearly 70% Obama in 2008. A quick check on DRA reveals that Topeka was 54% Obama in 2008 and was therefore likely Obama this year as well as the county only barely swung to Romney. I'm pretty confident Boise voted for Obama as well, but less certain. Given the county results, I would guess Cheyenne was for Romney, but not certain.

Probably because it's near the center of the state. It's why the capital of Pennsylvania was moved from to Harrisburg.

Romney won Carson City in Nevada which was 53-44 for Romney.  Obama probably won Boise and definitely won Salt Lake City and probably Topeka.  Cheyenne definitely went for Romney.  I would also add Charleston, West Virginia might have gone for Romney although not sure.  Even Springfield, Illinois possibly did although I think Obama narrowly scraped by there.  Juneau definitely voted for Obama and by a sizeable margin too.

We determined in another thread that Obama won Charleston and Springfield handily.

Springfield probably went for Obama but it would have been close.  Unless the surrounding areas of Sangamon county went 70% for Romney which seems unlikely it would have been close.  I am guessing Romney got around 60% in the surrounding areas meaning Obama would have narrowly won it.  Kanawha county went 55-43 for Romney so unless the rest of the county went massively for Romney I think he could have won Charleston.  Lets remember it is fairly white and is not a large centre, so I don't think it is a given Obama won this unless you have the actual raw numbers.

I do remember us figuring out that Obama won Charleston, WV. I was mistaken on Carson City.

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So here's my map now.

Nothing about Topeaka or Jeanau?

Didn't even notice Juneau was grey. It's solidly Democratic, voted for Kerry in 2004 IIRC. I'm pretty sure someone posted a map with it as >60% Obama in 2012 that I've seen. No question it should be red.

I'm confident Topeka should be red, too. It makes up two-thirds of Shawnee County, and it was a bit over 54% Obama in 2008. The swing to Romney in Shawnee County was less than 1%. (McCain won by 0.23%, Romney by 1.05%.) Topeka had to have voted for Obama in 2012.

Nice to see Republicans doing so well in all our state Capitals.

Fixed once again. That should be the final map.

Of course, Columbia is a much larger Obama-voting city also near the center of the state. I suspect there's some historical reason that doesn't have much meaning now, but moving the capital isn't worth the hassle. Same with Kentucky where now Lexington would be a more logical capital than Frankfort, but it's not that big of a deal.

Jefferson City does have over 40,000 people and is much bigger than it's being described though.

Wiki article on Jefferson City:


That predates the founding of the university in Columbia so that city probably barely existed if at all back then. Makes sense.

So why is Carson City such an unusually gop capital city for a lean blue state? I guess it's basically a typical small nevada town that has little relation politically to the democratic enclaves of Vegas and Reno? Though Obama won it in 08 so i'd guess it's politically swingy overall.

Basically the city expanded to fill the whole county (Ormsby County). So it includes suburbs too.

Now what's the deal with airline peanuts Cheyenne, Pierre, Bismark, and Oklahoma City?

The first 3 are SMALL cities in right-wing states. Obama probably would have won Oklahoma City if the city didn't expand into areas that are actually suburban.

Ada County( Which has Idaho's Capital City, Boise), was won by Romney with 53.53% to Obama's 42.33%

Isn't a lot of it suburban though?

Yes but  it is Located in Ada County

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We don't care how the county voted, only how the city voted. The city of Boise voted for Obama. Who the entirety of Ada County voted for is not helpful except as it might be informative as to how the city voted.