Dutchess County is getting bluer

[bluestateguy]

I've been there once (to the FDR library), and found it to be a nice little quaint place. This is FDR's home county, yet it never voted for him once, even in 1936. It voted for LBJ in 1964 and for Clinton by a plurality in 1996. Yet trends show that this county is getting a little bluer. In 2004 it voted 51.2%-47.0% for Bush, and 47.1%-46.9% for Bush in 2000. It seems that the bluest part of the county comes from Poughkeepsie (perhaps all of the college kids at Marist and Vassar?), but most of the other towns at least sport respectable Democratic percentages.

http://www.dutchesselections.com/dboe/Election%20Results/GE04OFFICIALRECANVASSBYPTY.PDF
(city and town totals can be found on page 31)

[mdmc]

1. This trend is seen all over the hudson valley

The question becomes "how do spitzer and hillary help swing the hudson valley blue?" I thought that Wappinger Falls Supervisor Joe Ruggerio would have made a great LT. Gov.

Te dems need to take NYSCD 20 (Sweeny) and NYSCD 19 (Sue Kelly). This would be a win for the dems. A Hillary / Spitzer victory is expected.
:kick:

[Ignacio Upton]

2. Dutchess is joining Westchester and Rockland in the blue family

Even though Rockland went red in 2004, in the long run I think it will still be blue. Now if only someone could work on Putnam. Does anyone know why Putnam and Orange are so red? Putnam's redness record is even worse than Dutchess, and yet they are geographically closer to Westchester, which has become a reliably Democrat county in the past fifteen years.

[Berzerkley]

3. Buttnam and Orange

I think Putnam and Orange are so red because they are fringe NYC suburbs that are seeing a large influx of older retired people who want to "get away from it all", and younger couples that want to be homeowners and send their children to schools that don't have "those ghetto kids" because they think a sheltered environment is the best option for their childern.

Duchess, with Vassar and Bard College being located there, plus with a poorer working class population, helps turns it more blue. I think Ulster is blue because of New Paltz, which has a liberal reputation with the help of the SUNY school that is located there.

[AX10]

4. A similar thing happened in Fairfield County (CT).

Right over the border....as Fairfield County's population grows, the county becomes more blue.
The areas north of the city will do the same.