milwaukee suburbs

[WalterMitty]

these places seem to be going in a rightward direction, the complete opposite of most other suburbs.

what is the reason for this and is it likely to continue?

[Alcon]

There is an important distinction to be made between suburb and exurb.  Beyond that, there is an important distinction to be made between inner-ring suburbs (which generally trended Democratic) and outer-ring suburbs/inner exurbs (which generally trended Republican).

Looking at the Milwaukee County town results, it looks like the part of Milwaukee County not including the city of Milwaukee was generally stagnate - not unusual for midwestern suburbs in 2004.

If you mean the counties around Milwaukee, I'm afraid I cannot provide too much insight.  However, I can tell you that they are extremely German.  In the midwest, this oftentimes translates into results like this, especially when it's a certain sect of the German population.

It's also worth noting that the counties around Milwaukee have their own population centres, which make me suspect they aren't all that exurban.  Waukesha County has Brookfield (extremely Republican), Menomonee Falls (very Republican), New Berlin (very Republican), and Waukesha (moderately Republican); Ozaukee County has the heavily Republican Mequon;  and the county to the south contains Racine, which entirely defeats the point of looking at it at all.