What to make of Jones' overperfomance in NW Alabama?

[Doimper]

Jones didn't just win Huntsville by a comfortable margin, he also made massive inroads into the very white, industrial border counties along the Tennessee border. He was even leading in Colbert and Lauderdale counties at one point. A good omen for Bredesen next year, maybe?

[Dr. MB]

This was the last traditionally white Dem area of the state to go; it elected Parker Griffith and was reliably blue on a local level until recently (three NWAL counties were won by Lucy Baxley in 2006 over Bob Riley, even when Baxley got only 42%). There are still plenty of registered Democrats there.

It's not a gigantic surprise that Jones performed fairly well in those areas. If Bredesen has a chance next year part of his path to victory will be winning Chattanooga, Knoxville, and the white Obama '08 counties which have turned sharply Republican in recent years.

[Attorney General & PPT Dwarven Dragon]

It's not a surprise. Gore won two northwest AL counties in 2000, while losing statewide by 13. There are a lot of people up there who used to be straight ticket D votes, and who will still vote for a random democrat here and there.

[Holmes]

I was hoping Jones would pull through there, even though I knew he didn't need it. Jones still did well.

[VPH]

Jones ran a kitchen table campaign. The interesting thing is Colbert and Lauderdale voted about equally with Jackson and Cherokee 15 years ago. Hell, in 2012 Obama actually gained ground in Lawrence County. I think the area's industrial, blue-collar nature lends itself to Democrats having a higher ceiling than in other counties where they used to do well. S