contrary to popular opinion, the South is not solid Republican

[GreenInNC]

Here in North Carolina 8 of our 13 congressional members are Dems, our Gov is a Dem Woman, our Lt. gov is a Dem, both houses of our legislature is Dem, 8 our 10 council of state members are Dem, plus we went for Obama.

[mmonk]

1. Maybe we are no longer in the south?

[onehandle]

2. Flip those numbers, seats, and choice of President around.

Welcome to Georgia.

[DemBones DemBones]

6. But before the 2002 election, Georgia had

a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators.

2002 was the first year all of Georgia had black box no-recount-possible voting, plus the Bush family and Cheney made a number of campaign trips to the state, i.e., the fix was in for many candidates that year.

[Sebastian Doyle]

3. But how many of them are actually DEMOCRATS?

I mean Heath Shuler, for Christ's sake??

Are the rest of them better than him, I hope?

And I'm not singling out NC, by any means. Mary Landrieu and the two from Arkansas are worse than useless, for example.

[mmonk]

5. Well there are ones like David Price, Brad Miller, Mel Watt, etc.

[bertman]

7. Our new Senator, Kay Hagan, promptly aligned herself with the New Dems, giving me

writer's cramps typing furious letters to her about her un-Democratic votes.

David Price, my rep, gets high marks for the run-of-the-mill votes, but he has failed his constituents miserably by supporting financing the War in Iraq, his failure to support impeachment of Bush and Cheney, his support for the Telecom Immunity bill, and his vote FOR the Financial Failure Reward Program aka TARP.

Price is in the most liberal district in the state, yet he is not a member of the Progressive Caucus. He's been in Congress too long. We need new blood.

[mmonk]

8. I'm with you on Kagan.

I worked hard on some issues with Price's office, some successful, but no success in attempts to help Sibel. He's better than worthless but not a boat rocker. It would be good now for a progressive to take charge.

[bertman]

10. Yes, David is a good person, but his twenty-plus years have turned him into an Insider.

Too bad. We deserve better.

[struggle4progress]

12. Hey, I take Shuler any day over Chainsaw Charlie. Chainsaw was in that seat for years, and Shuler

took him down. Replacing an incumbent SOB like Chainsaw is a real accomplishment, and it helps shift the political center

[Juche]

4. Southern whites are. Southern blacks are solidly democratic

In Alabama or Mississippi about 90% of whites vote GOP. Generally in the south white people vote republican 65-90% of the time and blacks (inside and outside of the south) vote democratic 90% of the time. Ah, democracy.

At least on the national level. I wouldn't be surprised if some southern whies vote democratic on the state or national level.


Here is a fun fact. Of the 13 southern states and their 26 senators, 19 are GOP. OUtside of the south (assuming you count Specter as a democrat for whatever reason) there are 74 senators and of those seventy four, 21 are republicans. And several of them are more moderate than southern GOP senators like the ones in new england, or Luger in Indiana.

So 73% of southern senators are republican, and 72% of non-southern senators are democratic.

[stray cat]

9. Nor are the rural parts of coastal states solidly democratic

[ZombieHorde]

11. That may be true, but the weather sucks. nt

[GreenInNC]

13. weather?

I will take our summers over 10 months of winter anytime.

[ZombieHorde]

14. Are those the only two options?

Where I live, winter is about four months long, though I know some love the heat.