What are the 10 richest counties in America?

[A18]

Anyone know? I'm just interested in seeing how they voted.

[danwxman]

Teton County, Wyoming: Bush/Cheney - 5,124 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 5,972

Fairfield County, Connecticut: Bush/Cheney - 14,694 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 15,047

Marin County, California: Bush/Cheney - 26,141 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 73,946

Somerset County, New Jersey: BUSH/CHENEY - 67,505 - Kerry/Edwards - 61,550

Morris County, New Jersey: BUSH/CHENEY - 126,761 - Kerry/Edwards - 90,476

Clear Creek County, Colorado: Bush/Cheney - 2,467 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 2,899

Douglas County, Colorado: BUSH/CHENEY - 79,115 - Kerry/Edwards - 38,956

Hunterdon County, New Jersey: BUSH/CHENEY - 39,449 - Kerry/Edwards - 25,727

Westchester County, New York: Bush/Cheney - 153,241 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 218,142

New York County (Manhattan), New York: Bush/Cheney - 95,362 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 468,841

[Grad Students are the Worst]

Wow, interesting.

[A18]

Those are the 10 wealthiest judged by what?

[Grad Students are the Worst]

Those are the 10 wealthiest judged by what?

Adverage adjusted household gross income, or AAHGI for short.

[KEmperor]

That is an extremely simplstic way of looking at it.  Cost of living varies greatly thoughout the country.  Someone making $50,000/yr lives a lot more comfortably in a state like Alabama than in a state like New York.

[12th Doctor]

Hmmm... four went for Bush and they are all in New Jersey.

[danwxman]

Hmmm... four went for Bush and they are all in New Jersey.

Three in NJ and one in Colorado. And Somerset in New Jersey was pretty close.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Kerry tended to win donor counties.
Bush tended to win welfare counties.

[A18]

Bush tended to win donor people.
Kerry tended to win welfare people.

[Grad Students are the Worst]

Bush tended to win donor people.
Kerry tended to win welfare people.

Wow, poor people vote Democratic! The sky is blue! The sun is made of oysters.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Bush tended to win donor people.
Kerry tended to win welfare people.

Explain to me how Kerry got those numbers in Marin and New York counties with only the votes of poor people.

[A18]

I didn't say only poor people voted for him.

Bush tended to win people who actually carry the tax burden. Kerry tended to win people who carry a lot less of the tax burden.

Talking about "welfare counties" is BS. If a county has one billionaire and nine poor people, it's going to be giving away a lot of money.

The 9 poor people probably voted for Kerry. Guess what? They're not the ones being ripped off.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I didn't say only poor people voted for him.

Bush tended to win people who actually carry the tax burden. Kerry tended to win people who carry a lot less of the tax burden.

Talking about "welfare counties" is BS. If a county has one rich guy and nine poor people, it's going to be giving away a lot of money. Well, the 9 poor people probably voted for Kerry. Guess what? They're not the ones being ripped off.

The bay area has some very wealthy communities (ranked by median income), and they went for Kerry. Trust me, there are lots of donor Kerry voters in the SF, LA, NYC, and Boston areas.

[patrick1]

There are also some fabulously wealthy limosine liberals. Guys like George Soros.  The tax rate doesn't really affect him and they don't care about it.  Generalizations  are quite easy to find holes in though.

[Nym90]

I thought Oakland County, MI was in the top 10. Either it no longer is, or lists that I've seen putting it 3rd or 4th used a different standard. In any event, it went narrowly for Kerry.

[A18]

There are certainly plenty of rich Kerry voters, and plenty of poor Bush voters.

Wealthy people tend to vote Republican more than poor people. Poor people tend to vote Democrat more than wealthy people. That's a well documented truth accepted by both parties.

As patrick1 said, if you're George Soros, the tax rate doesn't affect you.

But the point is, just because a Kerry county is rich does not mean that the Kerry voters in that county are the ones with the wealth.

[bgwah]

There are certainly plenty of rich Kerry voters, and plenty of poor Bush voters.

Wealthy people tend to vote Republican more than poor people. Poor people tend to vote Democrat more than wealthy people. That's a well documented truth accepted by both parties.

As patrick1 said, if you're George Soros, the tax rate doesn't affect you.

But the point is, just because a Kerry county is rich does not mean that the Kerry voters in that county are the ones with the wealth.

Aha, but unlike other people, you aren't posting any evidence proving your "rich people are Republican" theory.

My city is wealthy. We simply don't have poor people so don't even mention them. We voted 50% Bush and 49% Kerry...and were on the edge of the metro, edges usually leaning Republican.

As Alcon pointed out, cities even richer than mine were hardly "solid Bush," although they did lean him, with the exception of Mercer Island which somehow voted over 60% Kerry...

With the exception of the tiny Medina/Clyde Hill area, I wouldn't qualify any of the "Bush" (him winning by at least 5%) areas as rich.

Counties are a bad example. Precincts are much better. Counties contain a wide range of people, poor and rich. Precincts are much smaller, only including neighborhoods. You can pinpoint a rich neighborhood and not have to worry about poor people.



However, the richest people do lean Republican, nationwide at least. Nation wide, people making over 200K per year voted 63% Bush, in Washington state they voted 64% Kerry. But of course exit polls haven't proven to have been too reliable lately, but perhaps they just over sampled certain groups so these statistics are still somewhat accurate.

[J. J.]

Something between 40%-50% of Philadelphians receive welfare befefits of some type (not necessarily cash).  Kerry received 81% of the vote.

[Sam Spade]

I know the numbers are too small to look into this, but I would curious about the voting habits of those who make over $500,000 a year, over $1,000,000 a year, over $5,000,000 a year.

I wonder if there's a regression line back to the Democrats, as these incomes go up.  Over time, I've found that small business owners tend to fall in the $200,000-1,000,000 a year bracket and they are the most concerned about economic issues than nearly any other group.  They also tend to make up a huge amount of the members of this income bracket.  And they vote Republican heavier than almost any other group.

I wonder at what point does money become less of a concern and social issues more of one as you go up the economic scale.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

I know the numbers are too small to look into this, but I would curious about the voting habits of those who make over $500,000 a year, over $1,000,000 a year, over $5,000,000 a year.

I wonder if there's a regression line back to the Democrats, as these incomes go up.  Over time, I've found that small business owners tend to fall in the $200,000-1,000,000 a year bracket and they are the most concerned about economic issues than nearly any other group.  They also tend to make up a huge amount of the members of this income bracket.  And they vote Republican heavier than almost any other group.

I wonder at what point does money become less of a concern and social issues more of one as you go up the economic scale.

It might. You've got Michael Eisner, George Soros, Warren Buffett, and plenty of other really rich Democrats.

[Vasall des Midas]

Douglas County, Colorado: BUSH/CHENEY - 79,115 - Kerry/Edwards - 38,956

That article Philip quoted about 97 of the 100 fastest-growing counties going for Bush stated this one as a prime example of an outer suburban, fast growing county that wasn't as rich as the inner suburban counties near it. Oops.

[Sibboleth]

How is "richest" defined?

I think that using Median HouseHold Income gives a more accurate picture.

I recomment www.fairdata2000.com

----
To jfern: SHUT UP AND DO YOU'RE BLOODY HOMEWORK

Unless McDowell, WV is a "doner" county now...

People like you disgust me.

[jimrtex]

Anyone know? I'm just interested in seeing how they voted.

Using the Census Bureau site, I used the median household income in 1999.  Setting a lower limit of $65,000, there were 36 counties.  Almost all were suburbs of larger metropolitan area (the city had to be large enough such that the suburbs spilled over into the next county, and dominate any remaining rural/small town residents.

*More than $70,000
**More than $75,000

San Franciso: *San Mateo, *Marin
San Jose: *Santa Clara (only one containing a large city).
Denver: **Douglas
Albuquerque: **Los Alamos (though not exactly a suburb)
Dallas: *Collin, Rockwall
Nashville: Williamson
Atlanta: *Fayette, Forsythe
Twin Cities:Scott, Carver, Washington
Chicago: DuPage, Lake
Indianapolis: *Hamilton
Columbus: Delaware
Detroit: Livingston
Washington: (VA) **Loudon, **Fairfax, Prince William, Stafford; (MD)*Montgomery, *Howard, Calvert
Philadelphia: Chester
New York: (NY) Rockland, *Putnam, Sussex, *Nassau; (NJ) **Hunterdon, **Somerset, **Morris, Sussex, Bergen; (CT) Fairfield.

[dazzleman]

Teton County, Wyoming: Bush/Cheney - 5,124 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 5,972

Fairfield County, Connecticut: Bush/Cheney - 14,694 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 15,047

Marin County, California: Bush/Cheney - 26,141 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 73,946

Somerset County, New Jersey: BUSH/CHENEY - 67,505 - Kerry/Edwards - 61,550

Morris County, New Jersey: BUSH/CHENEY - 126,761 - Kerry/Edwards - 90,476

Clear Creek County, Colorado: Bush/Cheney - 2,467 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 2,899

Douglas County, Colorado: BUSH/CHENEY - 79,115 - Kerry/Edwards - 38,956

Hunterdon County, New Jersey: BUSH/CHENEY - 39,449 - Kerry/Edwards - 25,727

Westchester County, New York: Bush/Cheney - 153,241 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 218,142

New York County (Manhattan), New York: Bush/Cheney - 95,362 - KERRY/EDWARDS - 468,841

Your results for Fairfield County, Connecticut are actually for the Town of Fairfield, which is a town within the county, rather than the county as a whole (I know because I live in the town).

The Fairfield County, Connecticut results are:

Kerry - 205,866 - 51.35%
Bush - 189,582 - 47.29%
Nader - 2,383 - 0.59%
Others - 1,913/1,163 - 0.48%/0.29%