Putting aside political affiliation, I think New Englanders are more traditionalist by a lot of metrics than Pacific Coast people. I actually have a collection of maps to this effect somewhere...they're pretty legit.
I remember those maps! This is what matters and determines how politics is colored in the west. At the local level, it wouldn't be considered controversial for politicians to be known pot smokers in some western cities, atheism is fairly normal (at the local level) and rhetoric is much more "green".
