Affluence vs. Voting Patterns

[zachman]

My town is particularly affluent and it votes Republican by a wide margin. I think it has to do with its low tax rate (even for NH) and the amount people spend on luxuries like summer homes and skiis. There are just too many factors that govern what party people vote for.

[Wrecking Ball and Chain]

I am a conservative Republican here in New York but I am probably a lot more "liberal" on many issues than a Democrat from the south or Midwest.

Believe me, you are not more liberal than me! on anything!

[??????????]

Patrick,

I bet you are to the left of me. Most are...but I am not a right winger in the least.

[khirkhib]

Your a rare breed in the Republican party now adays.  All your positions are liberal ones.

[cwelsch]

The richest and the poorest have always been more Democrat-leaning and the middle class has always been more Republican-leaning.

This fact is further corroborated by the fundraising issues.  The Republicans have tons of $2,000-level contributors.  Pre-BCRA, the Democrats had tons of uber-rich contributors.

[nclib]

Once race is controlled for, wealthy areas are much more Democratic than poor areas.

This isn't the case by any means.

Who won Knott, KY?

Who won Logan, WV?

Not Dumbya!

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule.

But wealthy areas are more Democratic than white-majority poor areas, at least at the congressional district level.

[classical liberal]

The richest and the poorest have always been more Democrat-leaning and the middle class has always been more Republican-leaning.

This fact is further corroborated by the fundraising issues.  The Republicans have tons of $2,000-level contributors.  Pre-BCRA, the Democrats had tons of uber-rich contributors.

I think that the poorest are more than leaning to the Dems, while the middle class is more of a slight GOP lean, though that's nitpicking.  The original point of my post is the the Upper middle class is trending to vote more like the upper class than the middle class.

[nclib]

Precisely.  Those are some of my libweral views. On most everything else, I am a conservative.  I feel, you have to take it issue by issue and use your best judgement.  The term "dittoheads" is something I loathe.  Think for yourself and don't take marching orders from anybody.  Not Franken or Moore nor Limbaugh and Coulter.

Welcome, to the forum, patrick1. Where in Queens are you? My mother grew up in Jackson Heights.

[classical liberal]

Are Bronx County and Queens County officially under the rule of the NYC Council and the Mayor?  If so what happened to the Bronx County Council and the Queens County Council?

[Vasall des Midas]

Brooklyn/Kings County, Staten Island/Richmond County and Queens were all separate boroughs until 1898 when it was absorbed into NYC.  Most powers have been centralized to N.Y.C. council but overlap still exists.
Not sure when Bronx was added, I think same year.

New York City, New York County and Manhattan Island have been identical since colonial times.
In 1885(? - somewhere around that time, anyways), the Southern tip of Westchester County (the modern South Bronx) was added to NYC and to NY County.
In 1898, Greater New York was formed, to consist of 5 Boroughs:
Manhattan (the old, pre-1885 NYC)
Richmond (Richmond County; the borough was renamed Staten Island not so long ago)
Brooklyn (the entire old Kings County, not just the former city of Brooklyn)
Queens (only part of the old Queens County. The remainder was organized as Nassau County.) All these were identical with Counties of the same size.
Bronx (the area added to New York county, plus an additional bit of Westchester County.) Bronx County was only created in 1910(?) - until then Bronx borough was partly in New York county, partly in Westchester county.

[MODU]

Patrick,

Former Great Necker here.  Welcome.


Trondheim,

Meant to ask you earlier - What part of Hawai'i are you from?  Former Millilani Town stomper here (back when it was still a town and still had pineapples growing across the street from the high school).

[Vasall des Midas]

Patrick,

Former Great Necker here.  Welcome.


Trondheim,

Meant to ask you earlier - What part of Hawai'i are you from?  Former Millilani Town stomper here (back when it was still a town and still had pineapples growing across the street from the high school).

Read my signature, dude.
For fantasy purposes: Not Oahu. Molokai or Kauai or Maui.
And as I'm ethnic German I think I'll consider myself fantasy ethnic Hawai'ian from now on.

[MODU]

HAHAHAHA . . . got it.    In that case, I enjoyed bremerhaven.  

MODU gets around.  *laughs*

[Vasall des Midas]

HAHAHAHA . . . got it.    In that case, I enjoyed bremerhaven.  

So did I...many years ago when I spent one afternoon there on a tour of the harbour. The city itself is a dump though.

[MODU]

Well, that was what . . . 1994 if I remember correctly, when I sailed into there.  You want to talk about a dump, I left Bremerhaven to go to Felixstowe, England.  Kinda reminds me of Bayonne, NJ.  hahaha . . . ahhh, the good ol' days.  

[Sibboleth]

Al, That was a great link with the socio-economic map.  I recommend that to everyone.  I agree that wealth is relative to how most people vote.  The few "affluent" communties here is the Northeast that do vote Republican do so because they wouldn't consider themselves affluent.  The cost of living in the Northeast is so high that people making good money are just middle class.  For instance, the starting salary for a NYC school teacher is $39,000.  It would look like a great salary in say Montana but it is hard to live on in New York with houses averaging close to half a million dollars.
In closing I think voting patterns have a lot more to do with geography and "values" than how much you make. I am a conservative Republican here in New York but I am probably a lot more "liberal" on many issues than a Democrat from the south or Midwest. Both Dems and Repubs. slight the Northeast a few ways.  Democratic tendencies for higher taxes for the rich hurt the middle class here because a school principal or veteran cop would be considered wealthy in their tax structures. A Republican pork controlled congress kills us because Wyoming of all places is getting like 7 times the amount of terroism funding per capita than New York.  A little bit of common sense from both parties would go a long way.  End of rant. Take care  

Historical Geography is often very importent... rural Tennessee being the usual example.
I think that cultural issues are over-rated as a voting indicator... unless you're using it as a euphamism for racial voting...

[muon2]

Al, That was a great link with the socio-economic map.  I recommend that to everyone.  I agree that wealth is relative to how most people vote.  The few "affluent" communties here is the Northeast that do vote Republican do so because they wouldn't consider themselves affluent.  The cost of living in the Northeast is so high that people making good money are just middle class.  For instance, the starting salary for a NYC school teacher is $39,000.  It would look like a great salary in say Montana but it is hard to live on in New York with houses averaging close to half a million dollars.

This comment gets to the core of the problem with a national income tax, and how it affects perceptions of the parties. Since costs of living vary so much, income for the same profession tends to vary as well. When the two are combined the type of people that fall into a particular tax bracket in a rural Midwest county may be quite different than those who fall in the same bracket in an urban center in the Northeast.

The national graduated tax structure cannot take into account the regional differences. Until the types of expense are identified, the current tax structure will fail to differentiate between these groups. As such, the perception of which way to correct the tax system, will have a regional, and not purely economic basis.

[Hitchabrut]

Bush won Somerset county in 2000 and in 2004.

[phk]

It has become less Republican over the years.

[Vasall des Midas]

Smallest Republican swing in New Jersey.

[Grad Students are the Worst]

This is an old topic, but an interesting one.  Bump.

[Verily]

It was insane how wildly Rockland County, New York swung in 2004. It's almost entirely wealthy NYC commuters (having basically no poor communities or local communities despite being semi-rural in areas), so I suppose it was hit hardest by the 9/11 effect.

[memphis]

Regardless of how counties vote, income is a very poor predictor of how people will vote. The poorer the income bracket, the better the Dem will do, but this is largely a function of higher numbers of minorities. Ethnicity is a much better predictor. Generic Whites vote about 60-40 Republican. Blacks vote 90-10 Democrat. Jews vote 80-20 Democrat etc.

[Verily]

Regardless of how counties vote, income is a very poor predictor of how people will vote. The poorer the income bracket, the better the Dem will do, but this is largely a function of higher numbers of minorities. Ethnicity is a much better predictor. Generic Whites vote about 60-40 Republican. Blacks vote 90-10 Democrat. Jews vote 80-20 Democrat etc.

Protestant (and Evangelical, for those who insist that they aren't Protestant) Whites are the only significant demographic that votes Republican, interestingly, but by a wider margin than Catholic Whites vote Democratic, and those two together make up the vast majority of the population.

[Verily]

Fezzy, I have noticed New jersey does have a Democratic lean, but I have never seen an election of which the Democrat landslides in NJ...

It's mostly just polarization between urban and inner suburban areas and outer suburban and exurban areas. The two areas are nearly equal in population, but the urban/inner suburban areas have a slight edge, so they win. New Jersey was also heavily hit by the 9/11 effect in 2004. In 2000, it was further affected by gun control, which New Jersey, having no rural areas to speak of, is strongly for. With the fading of gun control as an issue combined with the 9/11 effect, Bush did much better in NJ in 2004 than 2000, but I don't think any Republican could improve on that performance running nationwide.