Talk Elections

These seem to be the only two Kerry/Romney counties in Illinois. And Madison is the only notable one in terms of size.

So why? Seems to me like older working class St. Louis suburbs are being gentrified.

More like they're full of not particularly metropolitan people with family histories of boondogs coalmining.

Even my ballot from across the ocean didn't help. :(

Seems to me you know nothing about Metro East.

So...what is it like?

Rednecks, to an extent. Especially further up the river towards Calhoun.

East St. Louis is being gentrified? What universe is this?

East St Louis is in St Clair County, which, of course, remains reliably Democratic. But certainly not because it's gentrifying. Not really sure how gentrification is supposed to make a location more Democratic anyway, as it usually involves replacing minorities with white people.

Well yeah I was saying gentrification would make those areas more Republican.

Would be cool to get a full list of counties where Romney did better than Bush 2004, unsurprisingly he did in plenty of counties in the coal region in southeast Illinois, but Bush won this region in 2004 too.

The entire Upper South is an obvious start. A lot of Louisiana too. Much of West Texas too, which is rather funny given that was Bush's home region and because the Dems are always so convinced that Texas will swing their way sooner or later. Coal fields of Eastern KY/Southern WV gets the award for strongest swings. The strongest case I see after a very rudimentary comparison is Knott County, KY. Kerry won with 63% Romney won with 73%.

Should've been more clear, I meant counties in Illinois where Romney did better.

What's the deal with that Effingham place? Not only is it one, but it voted 75% for Romney and even voted for ALAN KEYES by 17 points. Demographically though it looks like a standard boring Midwestern town, we have hoards of similar ones as do Wisconsin and Iowa and most of those are about 55% R at worse.

MN and WI are worlds apart from Southern Illinois.  The Great Lakes states area has a strong progressive tradition a la LaFollette, Feingold, Wellstone, and Humphrey. Southern Illinois may as well be in Missouri though the white people in Effingham are, obviously, far far more Democratic than white people in the South.

Obama did a ridiculous sweep of traditionally Republican downstate counties in Illinois in 2008, but they turned back. On the whole, I'd say that the Chicago suburbs and the Rock Island area are becoming more Democratic, whie the rest of the state is becoming much more Republican. I'm not really unbiased here, but that's my honest opinion.

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What's the deal with that Effingham place? Not only is it one, but it voted 75% for Romney and even voted for ALAN KEYES by 17 points. Demographically though it looks like a standard boring Midwestern town, we have hoards of similar ones as do Wisconsin and Iowa and most of those are about 55% R at worse.
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They're probably angry about living in a county that sounds like someone cursing out a pig.  I've been through there a few times, even eaten at a decent bar-b-que place, nothing in particular stands out.

An odd little factoid about about coal and Southern Illinois.  Back in 1970s when the Nixon era Clean Air Act was enacted, coal plants had to regulate the amount of sulfur they spewed into the air.  Plants either had to install scrubbers or burn low sulfur coal to comply, and all new plants had to have scrubbers going forward.  Many chose to switch to low sulfur Wyoming coal (Powder River Basin) or Appalachian coal from high sulfur Illinois Basin coal (Ill, IN, W KY and MO) and the mining industry in Illinois Basin took a beating.  More recently, environmental regulations require all plants regardless of age to have scrubbers if they wish to continue operating.  That means that the sulfur content of coal no longer matters and thus the Illinois basin coal, which is cheaper than Appalachian and has a lower transport cost than Wyoming coal has been taking market share and is expected to continue that trend.  Thus, while coal production is way down in Appalachia and Wyoming this year it's actually up in the Illinois basin thanks to environmental regulations.

Yes (and Rockport in between too.) It's a north-south rather than a Chicago-elsewhere split.

So you live in a Romney county, Franzl? What a horrible experience it must be...

Thankfully, it's only a voting address these days... ;)

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/10913/

Effingham is home to the world's largest cross. That might have something to do with it. Because nothing says Christianity like building a $1.7 million cross instead of feeding the hungry and healing the sick.

It also appears that Effingham was a sundown town, and may still be so. (http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/sundowntownsshow.php?id=1640)

Most counties are Romney counties....