CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
– POLITICS
Jan. 29, 2009 – 5:58 a.m.
Political Trivia for Jan. 29
By Bob Benenson
Which is the most strongly Democratic state, according to a Gallup poll?
a) Vermont
b) Massachusetts
c) Rhode Island
d) Hawaii
Answer: c) A poll released Wednesday by the Gallup organization showed that Rhode Island was the state with the biggest gap — 37 percentage points — between those who favor the Democrats and those who favor the Republicans.
Rhode Islanders who said they are Democrats or lean to the party made up 60.4 percent of respondents, to 23.8 percent who said they are Republicans or lean to the GOP.
The 60.3 of respondents in Massachusetts who affiliate with the Democrats was lower by a statistically insignificant difference. But a slightly higher number, 26.3 percent, favor or lean to the Republicans, making the gap 34 points. The same was true in Hawaii, the only non-New England state in the top four, where 60 percent identified with the Democrats and 26.2 percent did so with the Republicans.
Vermont scored 58.9 percent Democratic and 26.2 percent Republican, a gap of 33 points.
No state held a candle, though, to the District of Columbia, the Democratic stronghold that is the only non-state with electoral votes in presidential elections. The nation’s capital registered 84.1 percent Democratic to 8.7 percent Republican, a gaping chasm of 75 points.
These pro-Democratic leanings were clearly evident in last November’s presidential election results. Democrat Barack Obama easily carried D.C. and the four top Democratic states over Republican John McCain , taking 92 percent of the vote in the District, 63 percent in Rhode Island, 62 percent in Massachusetts, 72 percent in Hawaii (which also is Obama’s birth state) and 67 percent in Vermont. The Republican Party does not hold a single congressional seat, Senate or House, in any of these places.
Yet, in an interesting anomaly, three of the four strongest Democratic states — Rhode Island, Hawaii and Vermont — have Republican moderates serving as governor.
Comments
Will the Republican party see the light and start putting moderates in positions of power? Or will they stay in denial and tack further to the right? So far the answer seems to be the latter.
I live in Hawaii where we have a Republican governor but virtually no GOP representation in the state House or Senate. The unions here are so powerful that they target any GOP candidate and overwhelm any opposition with their unlimited (it seems) political action funds. Except for Hawaii, do you really think the qualify of life is all that great in any of the Democratic bastions? People vote with their feet. That's why GOP strongholds like Utah, Georgia, Texas, and Arizona are growing while the Democratic areas are shrinking. Who wants to live in a highly taxed, highly controlled state like Massachusetts? Not me.
Be careful what you wish fo- we call it the Rhode Island Blues. As the PDA State Coordinator from RI this is true plus the majority of Rhode Islanders support a progressive agenda. However, our Rep.'s Langevin & Kennedy refuse to join the Progressive Caucus and constantly err to the conservative side- their excuse the War Machine jobs at Electric Boat & the Naval War College. In the Senate freshman Senator Whitehouse has distinguished himself somewhat bringing down Gonzales and on the War issues. But West Pointer Sen. Jack Reed is the hawks hawk & knows was more about banking than we do that's why we have this mess. Whether he is naive or just looking out for their contributors interests, it was always a surprise to both of them that the Intelligence was sexed up or that Paulson would just do a parachute drop of funds to his friends & disappear. We are working with them on Single Payer but they both have plans that prefer to subsidize insurance companies. On the local level it is worse. We have to fight for everything- our Governor- Dandy Don Carcieri is Bush's favorite.He recently proposed not paying out State pensions (we stopped him on this) to balance the State Budget. About 1/3 of the Democrats are DINO's because everyone knows that you cannot win as a Democrat. The only problem is that without leader's with backbone & a media that highlights how they ignore our wishes, everyone lives in the "JFK-FDR' dreamworld that it is hard to run a true democrat which this phony Democratic base.
I live in Rhode Island. Our local newspaper is owned by the same company that owns the dallas morning news. By reading it (The Providence Journal) you would think we were staunch conservatives. They frown on democrats and praise republicans. Our little state is run by a republican governor who is going to get us out of this recession by giving tax money to the rich while destroying the middle class. The very same strategy the helped us get into this recession in the first place. Republicans just ignore the fact that the middle class is the engine that propels the economy. They understand how welfare to the poor makes them lazy unproductive leeches but they just can't comprehend how it does the same to the rich.
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