Most Neglected State?

[dead0man]

How about Idaho?

Gay dude in the bathroom?

[King]

Puerto Rico.  It's being so neglected that we don't even both to give it statehood.

[Platypus]

Per capita, California is the most under-discussed; the most over-discussed being Iowa.

In terms of actual discussion, Pennsylvania receives the most (closely followed by Ohio and Iowa); the least being Nevada, Nebraska and Delaware.

[Alcon]

Insomnia, so I decided to do this mathematically.  I had to disclude Washington, for obvious reasons.  Florida and New York both maxed out for search returns.  New York gets the crown, because it returns 5,875 Google results on the Atlas domain to Florida's 5,400.  However, when you take out newspaper references and references to the City, Florida probably wins.

But, anyway, the most Atlas-referenced states:

1. New York - 6,000+
2. Florida - 6,000+
3. Virginia - 5,828
4. Ohio - 5,753
5. Texas - 5,586
6. California - 5,454
7. Iowa - 5,059
8. Pennsylvania - 4,518
9. Minnesota - 4,138
10. Michigan - 4,054

And the least attention-given states:

10. Alaska - 2,052
9. Montana - 2,038
8. Wyoming - 1,805
7. Nebraska - 1,774
6. Idaho - 1,758
5. Rhode Island - 1,754
4. Delaware - 1,739
3. Hawai'i - 1,573
2. South Dakota - 1,444
1. North Dakota - 1,320

Combining the Dakota effort would have been good enough for 35th place.

Next, people per reference.  This is how many residents (as of the 2006 Census estimate) it takes to get us to mention their state once.

Most individual attention:

1. Wyoming - 285
2. Vermont - 293
3. Alaska - 327
4. New Hampshire - 341
5. Montana - 464
6. North Dakota - 482
7. Delaware - 491
8. South Dakota - 542
9. Maine - 545
10. Iowa - 589

On the other end:

10. Indiana - 2,629
9. New Jersey - 2,700
8. Pennsylvania - 2,754
7. Florida - 3,015
6. New York - 3,218
5. Georgia - 3,266
4. North Carolina - 3,488
3. Texas - 4,208
2. Illinois - 4,253
1. California - 6,685

[Lunar]

North Dakota is interesting this time around though, because Obama is running ads there, polling ok, and campaigning there.  South Dakota was possibly THE most ignored primary state minus Super Tuesday states like Delaware.  You knew it was ignored because Hillary pulled off an upset of sorts there and no one cared.  So I think it's unfair to group those two states together for 'interest' Alcon, and you a jerk for doing so.

Hawaii was pretty boring in the primaries.  Obama has his sister campaign for him and Hillary had Chelsae do the same.  The latter probably a vacation for her more than anything.  State promises to be a landslide in '08.  Democratic Party quite strong, the two senators ain't going anywhere.  I don't know what Gov. Linda's deal is but I don't think she's going anywhere either.

I think South Dakota, Hawaii, Delaware, Wyoming, in that order is the only reasonable answer to the thread question.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Delaware

Took it right out of my mouth.

To a lesser extent, Wyoming doesn't get much coverage.

Much Mikado? I'll go with DE but I can't recall any press coverage of WY unless Cheney is in a story somehow.

[Small Business Owner of Any Repute]

How about Idaho?

Gay dude in the bathroom?

And Bill Sali, which makes one of the seats theoretically competitive.

[There's no chance of the Senate race being competitive.  LaRocco is a joke.]

[DownWithTheLeft]

Delaware

Took it right out of my mouth.

To a lesser extent, Wyoming doesn't get much coverage.

Much Mikado? I'll go with DE but I can't recall any press coverage of WY unless Cheney is in a story somehow.

Barbara Cubin provides excitement, as did one of their senators dying last year

[MarkWarner08]

Oregon, by far. Everyone thinks it's a far-left state, but they forget that Gore won by only .4% and Kerry won by just 4%. Before the feckless crew now in charge of the OR GOP took over, the Republicans controlled the legislature and were competitive in statewide races.

Democrats' daunting 4-1 majority in the House delegation is actually quite misleading. Only one Democratic seat is safe, one leans Democrats (OR-01), and OR-04 and OR-05 are marginal seats that could flip in down year for the donkey party.

If the GOP would nominate more moderate types (e.g., Ron Saxton in 2002, before he went to the Lars Larson fringe), they could be very competitive with swing voters in the three main marginal Portland-area counties,  Clackamas, Columbia, and Washington Counties.

[nclib]

Most individual attention:

1. Wyoming - 285
2. Vermont - 293
3. Alaska - 327
4. New Hampshire - 341
5. Montana - 464
6. North Dakota - 482
7. Delaware - 491
8. South Dakota - 542
9. Maine - 545
10. Iowa - 589

On the other end:

10. Indiana - 2,629
9. New Jersey - 2,700
8. Pennsylvania - 2,754
7. Florida - 3,015
6. New York - 3,218
5. Georgia - 3,266
4. North Carolina - 3,488
3. Texas - 4,208
2. Illinois - 4,253
1. California - 6,685

These lists are biased towards small states--my guess is that this is predominantly because races for Governor, Senate, and President mention every state.

[Alcon]

These lists are biased towards small states--my guess is that this is predominantly because races for Governor, Senate, and President mention every state.

Yep.  My next task was going to do an x-minus kinda thing.  That is, take the lowest-mentioned state and subtract as a curve.  That, theoretically, eliminates anything that lists all states.