Day 27: Nebraska

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Out of curiosity, can anyone explain why Dakota County, Nebraska was so close?  It does contain South Sioux City, but a suburb of an already slightly Republican city is generally more Republican than the entirety of Dakota County.

Sioux City is not that Republican, (only barely voted Bush), and it's "suburbs" aren't really suburbs in a traditional sense, but rather simply parts that should be part of the city but fall across state lines (much like North Mankato here, which is really just the part of Mankato that was settled on the other side of the river.) South Sioux City is no more affluent or any less working class than Sioux City.

Beyond that...what's to say?  Only three other counties gave Bush under 60%:  Saline (not sure why)

Was settled by Hungarian immigrants and always had a historical Democratic tradition much unlike the neighboring area.

Fun fact, my brother went to college in Nebraska for one semester. While driving down, they went through Cherry county (that huge county in the north right next to the pandhandle.) While passing through Valentine (county seat and only town in the county of any significant size whatsoever) there actually was a sign posted to say to get gas now, as there was no more gas stations for another 90 miles. Not only was this correct, but for a good part of that 90 mile drive, there was no radio stations, and they were unable to use a cell phone (no nearby towers)

Urgh. Talk about hell.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I got a question...how do the CDs vote? What kinds of deviation is there between them?

The third district is more solidly GOP than Utah. The second is least Republican but still voted over 60% for Bush. Omaha suburbs keep it in the GOP column for presidential elections but it could possibly elect a Democrat on the Congressional level (and did fairly recently). The first is fairly safe as well but since it does contain all the Dem pockets in the state not in Omaha, there's an outside chance a Democrat could pick it up against a horrible opponent. Up until last year it also was represented by one of my favorite House Republicans, Doug Bereuter. Guy had one hell of an independent streak, and was very critical of Bush and Iraq. Just before he left the House in fact he actually flat out said Iraq was a mistake and the US should've never went int.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yes. Although going by the last presidential election results it's about as winnable as Indiana.