With the election results last night, Virginia became even more polarized geographically. In the three statewide races, NOVA continued to trend left, while Democrats appear to have collapsed even further in the Southwest corner of the state. McAuliffe even underperformed Deeds.
Particularly, does it surprise you that even EW Jackson, the black GOP Lt. Governor candidate, carried the region so overwhelmingly? (He even outperformed Cuccenelli in some counties.) It is a little bit interesting that in this area where Obama underperformed Kerry, voters solidly backed a black candidate over a fairly moderate white Democrat, but it doesn't surprise me too much that Jackson won the region. Does Jackson's performance in SW VA provide credibility to the argument that Appalachia does not vote based on racism? I suppose that even some racists in the area were eager to vote for a firebrand, Obama-bashing candidate, even if the candidate was black.
Also, does the failure of Democrats to contain losses in SW VA indicate that winning back West Virginia may not be even remotely easy for the party?
No, I wasn't surprised. Just a little surprised Jackson did so well there, but I was surprised he didn't fall further behind Cuccinelli statewide. The racism angle has certainly been overblown when it comes to the vote in SW, considering Mark Warner is the only gubernatorial candidate since
1989 to improve on Doug Wilder's performance there that year. McAuliffe didn't give them any reason to vote for him in terms of coal, guns, or a campaign based largely on liberal social causes. And then most folks just voted for the same party on the other statewide offices.