Which way is your state trending?

[nini2287]

Pennsylvania is hard to tell.  I say it's trending very slowly to the right on the Presidential and staying put on the right on the state level.

In Southwest PA, you're right about the rightward trend.  However, that's not the case in the East.  If the GOP moderated their social views, I'll admit we're in trouble here, but even then I find wealthier voters in the Philly suburbs left-center to center economically because they yearn for job security, hate paying for trash and other GOP-like use taxes, and are petrified of losing the ability to pay for their mortgage.  A lot of these people are also heavily in debt, even though they have $300-500K homes. 

I agree, but the West is trending GOP faster than the East is trending Democrat.  Also, on the Presidential level, Republicans are doing slightly better every year in the T.

Montco is flying to the left, at least in terms of voting, not necessarily in party registration.  Out of the Republicans I've personally met who have identified themselves as Republicans, I bet just as many voted for Kerry as Bush.

[nini2287]

Pennsylvania is hard to tell.  I say it's trending very slowly to the right on the Presidential and staying put on the right on the state level.

In Southwest PA, you're right about the rightward trend.  However, that's not the case in the East.  If the GOP moderated their social views, I'll admit we're in trouble here, but even then I find wealthier voters in the Philly suburbs left-center to center economically because they yearn for job security, hate paying for trash and other GOP-like use taxes, and are petrified of losing the ability to pay for their mortgage.  A lot of these people are also heavily in debt, even though they have $300-500K homes. 

I agree, but the West is trending GOP faster than the East is trending Democrat.  Also, on the Presidential level, Republicans are doing slightly better every year in the T.

Montco is flying to the left, at least in terms of voting, not necessarily in party registration.  Out of the Republicans I've personally met who have identified themselves as Republicans, I bet just as many voted for Kerry as Bush.

Why has Montgomery county gone so left in the past decade?

There was an article in our local paper about the increasing migration from Philadelphia and Washington DC that is just really starting to take off....and in 25 years or so south central PA will be very similar to the Philly burbs. Hopefully in terms of voting, too.

My guess is that since we are very libertarian and the focus of elections has shifted from economics to social issues, Montco voting patterns have followed this trend (similar to NH and opposite of WV and the rest of the south)

[nini2287]

I think NH is trending slightly to the left.

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