A number of socially conservative counties didn't vote for Washington's partial birth abortion ban. I'm not always convinced that abortion votes are the best ways to determine that sort of thing.
For instance, the moderately Republican but generally middle-class Clark County voted against legalising marijuana. I wouldn't call it populist, just suburbanite conservative. If you kow what I'm getting at...
Sometimes I think that there are a lot of "cultural conservatives" out there who are more uncomfortable than they realise with social conservatism.
Apples to orange comparision, partial birth abortion is a non-medical term, and did the ban make an exception to save the life of the woman? Also, Alpine county did vote for Kerry and Boxer.
The ban item read as follows:
Shall the termination of a fetus' life during the process of birth be a felony crime except when necessary to prevent the pregnant woman's death?So, yes, it did, and I think "process of birth" is a pretty clear term. In fact, with that wording, I'm surprised it failed so badly. It failed statewide with under 43%.
The medical marijuana item read as follows:
Shall the medical use of marijuana for certain terminal or debilitating conditions be permitted, and physicians authorized to advise patients about medical use of marijuana.It passed with 59%.
I know Alpine voted for Kerry and Boxer. That's why I was asking. It seems odd that the two groups (the liberals and the mainstream conservatives) could have voted together so strongly even 15 years ago if it wasn't for the Democrats being either populists or libertarians. It's an area which I'd like to know more about (Mono County, too).
This was passed along with an anti-governmental affirmative action proposition (which passed 58%, with support of every county but a narrow defeat in King).
