Questions by state

[justfollowingtheelections]

I was planning to respond but Benj has given some really good answers.


Santa Cruz is considered the hippie town of the Bay Area, more so than San Francisco.  There's a beautiful beach there, nice little shops, eastern medicine and a lot of other things that you don't find in typical American cities where every drives big cars, has a huge tv and nothing interesting happens.  It feels really different than the rest of the Bay Area.

Regarding Honolulu, I don't think the differences are that big to say that it's more GOP-friendly than the rest of the state.  The military presence is of course a big reason for the small differences you noticed.  The fact that it's more urban, as well as the only place in Hawaii with suburbs, surprisingly is another reason why it may have a slightly bigger percentage of right-wing voters.  Life on the other islands is slower and the caucasians who live there are more environmentally-conscious.  There are a lot of those hippie types here in Honolulu as well (almost exclusively caucasians) but there are a lot of people who are into buying and selling real estate who tend to be more republican. 

Regarding Santa Fe, I haven't been there but from what I know it is a very artistic city with many artist colonies.