Postcard perfect, the nation's capital governs conservative and liberal cities alike and all of those in between.
It's that time of year again, when skeletons rattle out of closets and ghastly characters come to life. No, forget Halloween and its trick-or-treat thrills. We're talking about the 2008 presidential election, when trepidations of ballot recounts and hanging chads spook more cubicle zombies than the bailout bill.
With swing states capturing much of the media attention, we opted to look at those stalwart cities where a solid Republican (red) or Democrat (blue) vote can be counted on.
From U.S. Census numbers, votes cast for the 2004 presidential election, voter registration and political contributions by party, we pieced together an inventory of cities whose residents strongly favor one political party or the other. We also considered secondary factors such as education level, diversity, church attendance, culture, crime, standard of living and way of life. Only cities with populations of more than 100,000 were taken into account.
At-a-glance observations
Without exception, blue cities are major metropolitan areas, and red cities are small-to-mid-sized ones. Not a single major metropolis overwhelmingly votes for the conservative ticket, though some (Fort Worth, Oklahoma City and Phoenix) consistently favor that party by a slim majority of 50 to 62 percent. Blue cities vote Democrat by a gaping 1 to 4 ratio; only one red city votes Republican by such a wide margin.
Joel Kotkin, a presidential fellow at Chapman University and executive editor of New Geography, traced urban county votes since the 1980s and found that Democrats have gained 10-20 points in most cities. "The demographics of urban centers -- consisting of large minority populations, young college students, wealthy gentry liberals and declining numbers of middle class families -- work to homogenize the vote," says Kotkin in discussing this phenomenon.
Of course, this categorization isn't a must-follow manual. Communities change all the time, and one town's liberal policies may be seen as conservative somewhere else. Considering the array of city populations and characteristics, apples-to-apples comparisons are nearly impossible. So survey the results and assess your city's best hue.
