Dukakis vote was correlated heavily with the rates of union membership, which in those days was 16 percent. The rate of private-sector union membership was still as high as 12.7 percent (today that number is only 6.4 percent).
http://unionstats.gsu.edu/Private-Sector-workers.htm
Truth Hurts brings up a good point, especially considering the Pacific Northwest....
Oregon was traditionally a Center-Right State in Presidential Elections for decades....
1948: 46-50 R (+4 R)
1960: 47-53 R (+6 R)
1968: 44-50 R (+6 R) plus 6% voting for George Wallace
1972: 42-52 R (+10 R)
1976: 47.6-47.7 R (+0.1% R)------ Here is where we start to see Oregon start to shift
1980: 39-48 R (+9 R)----- Now John Anderson captured about 9.5% of the Vote here.
1984: 44-56 R (+12 R)---- So "Morning in America" and recovery from the Reagan recession, but Oregon is now to the left of the Nation.
1988: 47-51 D (+4 D)---- Oregon is now some 11% to the "Left of the Nation"
Now observe what we see here..... Democrats obtain > 50% for the first time since '64. Republicans have their lowest level, in what was essentially a State settled by White Protestants, many of New England backgrounds in the Northern Part of the State, and in the Southern part of Oregon and up roughly to the Linn/Benton > Marion County Line by Southerners that migrated up in heavy numbers starting at the time of California Gold Rush....
The Union Pulp and Timber Mills in Oregon traditionally tended to reside in the Northern parts of Oregon, AND a disproportionate sector of Timber Industry Workers statewide (Not even going into the history of the logging sector in the PacNW at this time).
Oregon suffered one of the highest rates of unemployment in the nation at the time of the Reagan Recession, which impacted workers throughout the state, because of the forced austerity program to manipulate interest rates, which collapsed the US Housing Market.
"When the American Economy has a Recession, Oregon has a Depression" is an often-heard phrase around here from back in the days.
Additionally, the collapse of the Timber Industry because of Reagan Administration policies caused a massive fiscal crisis in State, County, and School District budgets, that expanded the Fiscal Austerity regime of the former FBI Hoover agent President Ronald Reagan, which started in the late '40s and extended all the way into the early 1970s.
Also, Reagan Administration Foreign Policy platforms weren't particularly popular in a working-class state like Oregon, where many draftees fought, served, and died in Vietnam.
After the Iran-Contra hearings of '87 and all of the revelations of CIA activities in Central America, orchestrated by the President and his inner circle, it looked objectively to many of us like Bush Senior would continue to operate under shadowy circumstances and cause yet another war, where many of us were already were aware of the massacres being committed in Central America by Fascist regimes, fully funded by US Taxpayer dollars.....
Bush Sr not popular in the Pacific Northwest on Foreign Policy.
Bush Sr not popular in the PacNW on Economic Policy.
Hell--- wouldn't be surprised if Jesse Jackson had beat Bush Sr in Oregon had he been the candidate in the 1988 GE.Was at a Jesse Jackson rally a week or two before the '88 OR-DEM-PRIM and an estimated 13-17k folks showed up in a City of 35k Pop.....
Jesse walked the picket line with striking Union pulp workers at a large facility, which was a major high $$$ employer in the area.....
Downstate OR-DEMs grooved his vibe....
Metro PDX was tougher for Jesse.
