Miles' Election Map Thread

[Sol]

Here's a look at the non-Presidential statewide results in NC this year. I averaged the performance of the candidates from the 9 Council of State races on a county-level basis.

Democrats won the races for Auditor (Wood), Insurance Commissioner (Goodwin), SoS (Marshall), Superintendent of Public Institution (Atkinson) and Treasurer (Cowell). Jim Cooper was unopposed for AG, so he wasn't included here.

Republicans flipped the Governorship with McCrory and held their offices as Agriculture Commissioner (Troxler) and Sec. of Labor (Berry).

The LG race is currently too close to call with Dan Forest (R) ahead of Linda Coleman (D) 50.12%-49.88%.

Overall, between the 9 races, the parties were very close. Democrats got 50.3% of the share and Republicans got 49.7%.

How come Coleman won Jackson and Swain?

[Sol]

Wow, that Mecklenburg County map is really striking.  What happened in South Charlotte?  A few thoughts...

1) the DNC did a really good job of registering new minority voters
2) the DNC may have had a negative effect on downtown?  IDK, did the extra traffic piss everyone off or something?
3) Surprising that Myers Park would swing most heavily against Obama since it was already the most Republican part of South Charlotte... Republicans did not have as much room to improve
4) Hmm, not sure about the theory that Romney was more acceptable than McCain.  Romney seemed like more of a partisan a-hole to me.

Keep the maps coming, though.  A map of Watauga County would be interesting.

By the way - if there is a way to do a precinct map of any Atlanta area counties, as someone else mentioned, that would be interesting.  Since Atlanta, politically, seems like a bigger version of Charlotte, it would be interesting to see if the same patterns and trends place there.

You can get map of Watauga county here:
http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/Watauga/43018/114036/Web01/en/summary.html

The pattern is, predictably, Boone vs. the rest of the county.

Oh, and if we're doing requests, Foxx vs. Motsinger would be interesting.

[Sol]

Cool.  Interesting to see that the movement towards Romney was not among college students  but the more rural parts of the county.

Actually, one of the precincts that trended Romney contained ASU. That was more of a dead cat bounce than anything though.

Watauga County can be divided into several areas and communties, which explain the voting patterns:

-The Town of Boone, which is dominated by the University and the people associated with. It's dominated by transplants and Northern-Influenced southerners, and It tends to be strongly Democratic.

-The Town of Blowing Rock, which is the second largest town in the County. Blowing Rock is very touristy and is dominated by retirees from Florida. It tends to lean republican, although the Democrats can be competitive.

-The rest of the county tends to be fairly Republican and typically Appalachian, with a good smattering of White liberals and moderates who live in the country due to high housing prices in Boone. There are also some more retirees.

To win in Watauga county, a Democrat needs to either rack up large margins in the Boone Precincts and/or make inroads in the rest of the County.

[Sol]

.

Cool.  Interesting to see that the movement towards Romney was not among college students  but the more rural parts of the county.

Actually, one of the precincts that trended Romney contained ASU. That was more of a dead cat bounce than anything though.

Watauga County can be divided into several areas and communties, which explain the voting patterns:

-The Town of Boone, which is dominated by the University and the people associated with. It's dominated by transplants and Northern-Influenced southerners, and It tends to be strongly Democratic.

-The Town of Blowing Rock, which is the second largest town in the County. Blowing Rock is very touristy and is dominated by retirees from Florida. It tends to lean republican, although the Democrats can be competitive.

-The rest of the county tends to be fairly Republican and typically Appalachian, with a good smattering of White liberals and moderates who live in the country due to high housing prices in Boone. There are also some more retirees.

To win in Watauga county, a Democrat needs to either rack up large margins in the Boone Precincts and/or make inroads in the rest of the County.

Good points.  You seem to be someone who is familiar with the area, so do you know why Mitchell & Avery Counties are so heavily Republican?
[/quote]
I think you might be asking the wrong question- Watauga is the anomaly. The counties of Northwestern NC are extremely conservative in that traditional Appalachian way- A bit like East Tennessee. Avery was one of Alf Landon's best counties in 1936. Mitchell County is particularly conservative, which seems to be due to the area's isolation and homogeneity.

Oh, & I live around Boone, so yeah.

[Sol]

A Democrat won Gaston County?!?!

[Sol]

A Democrat won Gaston County?!?!

Yep. From 1993 to 2011.

Hoyle was mayor of Dallas, NC and could self-fund, so that helped. But still, yeah, Gaston County is rough.

Maybe It'll swing back in 20+ years with the growth of Charlotte.

[Sol]

My understanding is that Democratic strength in many Western NC counties comes from the TVA, although I'm not sure. There's also a significant population of hippie types in a lot of those mountain areas.

[Sol]

I was surprised that parts of central Appalachia cast more votes in 2012; I just thought lots of Democrats that didn't like Obama stayed home.

I suppose the most definite conclusion that can be taken out of the 2012 election is that the Democratic Party's traditional manifestation in Appalachia is as dead as a doornail. I suspect that Elliott County will fall by 2016/2020, and the long death will be complete. KY and WV should have republican state legislatures within the the next 10 years or so, if not sooner.

[Sol]

wow, McIntyre's overperformance in New Hanover and Cumberland is shocking.