Unusual state election results and vote patterns

[Orwell]

I didn't see a thread for this so I created one. The idea is that the results are unusual for the standards of the day, not merely by today's standards.

MI-GOV-1978: Gov. William Milliken (R) defeats challenger Bill Fitzgerald (D), 56.8% - 43.2%.

The two counties William Milliken carried strongest were Washtenaw and Ingham, university counties, which by the mid-1980s were among the most Democratic at the state and federal level. Milliken even won Wayne County, and did slightly worse in Macomb than his statewide total. Milliken's worst county was tiny, rural Oscoda County, then and now one of the most Republican counties.

One possible explanation: Milliken was pro-choice; Fitzgerald pro-life.

MA-GOV-1978: Edward King (D) defeats Francis Hatch (R), 52.5-47.2.

Hatch carried Cambridge, Brookline, and Amherst decisively, while King carried Boston and Lowell decisively. Again, King was pro-life and Hatch pro-choice.

MI-GOV-1986: Gov. Jim Blanchard (D) won every county except Ottawa against a Black Republican, William Lucas; Blanchard decisively won normally Republican Lapeer, Missaukee, and Oscoda Counties.

MA-Question 5-1986: The state's secondary seat belt law was overturned, No-53.5% Yes-46.5% (polls a week earlier showed the law winning "Yes" by 7). The vote occurred a mere week after the Mets' much-publicized comeback against the Red Sox in Game 6 of the World Series, which the Mets would ultimately win. Boston talk show hosts railed against the law (I know; every day that summer I rode in a van from MIT to Middleton for particle accelerator research and could hear the radio). In the end, every county in the Boston area voted to overturn the law; only Barnstable, Dukes, Hampden, Hampshire, and Nantucket counties-- all well outside the Boston media market-- voted to retain it. Even Boston proper voted No, 47-53, and Cambridge voted Yes by just 63-37.

MI-GOV-1990: Gov. Blanchard (D) narrowly loses to John Engler (R) 49.1% - 49.8%. All age groups under 40 vote Engler; all age groups over 40 vote Blanchard.

MA-GOV-1990: William Weld (R) defeats John Silber (D), 49.9% - 47.2%. Returns were remarkably uniform, with Weld winning Cambridge 54-42 and Brookline 54-44, while losing Boston 57-40 and Somerville 49-46.

Please add your own!

One major fact about 1978 that you left out is that the Democrat carried Missaukee County, which has never voted Democratic at the presidential level and only a handful of times at the state level in its entire history.

Why did Blanchard lose in 1990?