Homely's new maps thread

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Can I have the 2010 gubernatorial and both senatorials for Rensselaer County?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Unsurprising that Gillibrand cleaned up; she lives in Brunswick. Though, what's with Poestenkill, Grafton, and Pittstown? The Republican pocket of strength in Nassau in the other races is also a little curious, as is Paladino's apparent relative strength in Brunswick and Schaghticoke.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'd like the 2004 and 2008 Presidential and 2010 special Senatorial in the current[/old?] MA-01, please.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

In that case I can only offer you a town map, sorry. I was referring to results from New York.

Hmm. How about a Rensselaer map of the 2000 Senatorial and Presidential?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I understand. Thank you very much; it's interesting how far that part of New York has trended in the past decade.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I like the little skin tag up around but very precisely not actually including Poughkeepsie.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

An esoteric map, granted, but interesting nonetheless:

Shouldn't Amherst be a demonym? It's named after Jeffrey Amherst, First Baron Amherst.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The counties on the New York side of the line have as a whole trended, in general, Democratic of late. Columbia County was 47-46 Gore, then 51-47 Kerry, then 56-42 Obama both times (swinging very slightly D in 2012). Of note is that it is now more Democratic than Rensselaer County despite Rensselaer containing the post-industrial city of Troy and Columbia being primarily rural--which, granted, which the exception of some suburbanization in the southwestern part of the county as soon as you get out of spitting distance of the Hudson Rensselaer is too. Rensselaer has gone from 51-43 Gore, to 50-48 Kerry, to 54-44 Obama, to 55-43 Obama.

(Dutchess County also borders Massachusetts, technically, but it's for about two thousand feet and in a completely uninhabited area of wooded mountains southwest of Great Barrington.)

Before 1992 both counties were Republican. In 1992 they split, with Columbia for Bush and Rensselaer for Clinton. Since 1996 they've both been Democratic, but I don't have the exact numbers for 1996.

Local Republicans are still dominant in Rennselaer outside Troy; I'm not sure about Columbia.

You see patterns like this in a lot of rural upstate New York.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The counties on the New York side of the line have as a whole trended, in general, Democratic of late. Columbia County was 47-46 Gore, then 51-47 Kerry, then 56-42 Obama both times (swinging very slightly D in 2012). Of note is that it is now more Democratic than Rensselaer County despite Rensselaer containing the post-industrial city of Troy and Columbia being primarily rural--which, granted, which the exception of some suburbanization in the southwestern part of the county as soon as you get out of spitting distance of the Hudson Rensselaer is too. Rensselear has gone from 51-43 Gore, to 50-48 Kerry, to 54-44 Obama, to 55-43 Obama.

(Dutchess County also borders Massachusetts, technically, but it's for about two thousand feet and in a completely uninhabited area of wooded mountains southwest of Great Barrington.)

Before 1992 both counties were Republican. In 1992 they split, with Columbia for Bush and Rensselaer for Clinton. Since 1996 they've both been Democratic, but I don't have the exact numbers for 1996.

Local Republicans are still dominant in Rennselaer outside Troy; I'm not sure about Columbia.

You see patterns like this in a lot of rural upstate New York.

Have you spent much time in the Hudson's rive gauche? How would you compare it to Western Massachusetts in terms of culture, topography, demography, economics? Despite living in north central Connecticut all my life, less than 40 miles from Dutchess on Route 44, I've only been once (Poughkeepsie).

I have; my best friend lives in Rensselaer and I pass through Columbia and Dutchess when traveling between New England and New Jersey, which I do quite often. I would say that that part of New York is roughly comparable, culturally speaking, to western Massachusetts outside the hippified/yuppified/hipsterfied (in that historical order) towns, or the parts of Vermont to which it's closest. A certain amount of hill-folk left-libertarianism has set in and there are more white Buddhists than one might expect for that sort of area, but it's still home to plenty of more conservative types, typically but not always older. Politically it of course votes more Republican (or less Democratic) than east of the Taconics, I imagine partly because of a surprising lack of labor politics for a region that includes Troy. The rive droit is (appropriately!) rather more conservative, with the obviously very large exception of Albany itself. Once you get further down towards Poughkeepsie, however, first it reverses, with the Catskills being far more liberal than the rural parts of Dutchess, and then both banks of the river turn into something more immediately comparable to politics along the middle and upper Connecticut; on the other hand that turns into some very Republican areas further away from the water. People in these areas are somewhat similar to those in Litchfield County, politically and culturally--think Nan Hayworth, with whom I have a longstanding personal beef.

Topographically and demographically the entire region between the Connecticut and Hudson is pretty similar north of a certain point. Very hilly and in the rural areas, which most of it is, very white, although not as white as it used to be. One difference between the Hudson rive gauche and western Massachusetts and Vermont is that west of the Taconic Range there are no further lines of hills equivalent to the Berkshires/Green Mountains and Vermont Piedmont to the east, since the Taconics are much closer to the Hudson than they are to the Connecticut. Instead there's a long, gentle, rolling slope.

Economically there does seem anecdotally to be a bit of a difference, with the New York side being somewhat poorer, but I haven't really looked at any data. Regionally-indicative institutions are by and large the same, with a triumphalist Bank of America interspersed with local or regional savings banks and credit unions and the main convenience stores being Cumberland Farms and Stewart's--although the Stewart's stores on the New York side sell nightcrawlers in bulk during the summer months.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Thank you! This is fantastic.