The Green Papers:
Party Strength by SECTIONS and REGIONS
resulting from the 2008 Federal Elections
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The table below purports to show the relative strength of the Major Political Parties in each SECTION and REGION of the United States of America based on the election results from Federal Elections (elections for President [Electoral Vote], United States Senate and U.S. House of Representatives) through that held on 4 November 2008. The statistical method used herein is "as apparently elected" (that is: only elections are used [any appointment to the U.S. Senate to fill a vacancy and that results in a Party switch is not utilized, unless a Special Election shall have intervened; Special Elections for U.S. House that result in a Party switch from the General Election results are not utilized; an announcement of a Party switch after election is not considered; Presidential Electoral Vote is "as pledged" via the Presidential Election itself)... for instance: in the table below, the Class 2 U.S. Senate seat from MINNESOTA (still being legally contested as this table was being created) is assigned to the Democrats (because Democrat Al Franken was preliminary certified as the victor after recount: even if this result should come to be overturned by the courts, the "apparently elected" U.S. Senator re: this seat in the immediate wake of the 2008 General Election is considered to have been Franken by the table below-- there is no other reason, other than in relation to the aforestated statistical basis of this table, for such a result to have been used herein). The Nation is divided into SECTIONS and REGIONS and every State (and D.C) is assigned to same-- except for three "anomalous" (for lack of a better term) States, the Politics of which make these States best viewed as standing apart from the SECTIONS and REGIONS to which they might be adjacent: FLORIDA is, clearly, no longer the quintessential Southern State- either demographically or politically- and has not been for at least a generation, if not even longer; in truth, the Sunshine State is as much America's portion of the larger Caribbean region of the globe as it might still be part of the SOUTH in the United States. WEST VIRGINIA was aptly described by journalist Joel Garreau, in his 1981 book the Nine Nations of North America, as (I here paraphrase) a Northern State in good times and a Southern State in bad... moreover, even back in the 1950s, the Brookings Institution studies of Presidential Nomination politics considered the State where Mountaineers are Always Free to politically be associated with the NORTHEAST [!!!]... the user of the table below is, of course, free to add the "stand alone" data for WEST VIRGINIA to either of these three SECTIONS: NORTHEAST, MIDWEST or SOUTH as they might see fit while looking over this table. TEXAS is a State large enough within a relatively populous portion of the country to be associated with three different SECTIONS- MIDWEST, SOUTH or WEST- and, as with WEST VIRGINIA, the user is always free to choose when it comes to just which to attach the data re: TEXAS. Other than the above caveats, the listing of the SECTIONS, REGIONS and States within each on the table below is geographical, not alphabetical. |
| STATE | ELECTORAL VOTES for PRESIDENT |
UNITED STATES SENATE |
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Obama [Dem] | McCain [Rep] | Dem | Rep | other | Dem | Rep | other | |
| the NORTHEAST | ||||||||
| NEW ENGLAND | ||||||||
| Maine | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| New Hampshire | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Vermont | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Massachusetts | 12 | 2 | 10 | |||||
| Rhode Island | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| Connecticut | 7 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||
| NEW ENGLAND subTotal | 34 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 22 | |||
| MID-ATLANTIC Region | ||||||||
| New York | 31 | 2 | 26 | 3 | ||||
| New Jersey | 15 | 2 | 8 | 5 | ||||
| Pennsylvania | 21 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 7 | |||
| Delaware | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Maryland | 10 | 2 | 7 | 1 | ||||
| District of Columbia | 3 | |||||||
| MID-ATLANTIC subTotal | 83 | 9 | 1 | 53 | 17 | |||
| NORTHEAST Grand Total | 117 | 16 | 4 | 2 | 75 | 17 | ||
| WEST VIRGINIA | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| the MIDWEST | ||||||||
| GREAT LAKES States | ||||||||
| Ohio | 20 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 8 | |||
| Indiana | 11 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 4 | |||
| Michigan | 17 | 2 | 8 | 7 | ||||
| Wisconsin | 10 | 2 | 5 | 3 | ||||
| Illinois | 21 | 2 | 12 | 7 | ||||
| GREAT LAKES subTotal | 79 | 8 | 2 | 40 | 29 | |||
| the PLAINS States | ||||||||
| Missouri | 11 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 5 | |||
| Iowa | 7 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | |||
| Minnesota | 10 | 2 | 5 | 3 | ||||
| North Dakota | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| South Dakota | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Nebraska | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| Kansas | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||
| Oklahoma | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | ||||
| PLAINS States subTotal | 18 | 34 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 20 | ||
| MIDWEST Grand Total | 97 | 34 | 16 | 10 | 56 | 49 | ||
| FLORIDA | 27 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 15 | |||
| the SOUTH | ||||||||
| the LOWER (aka 'Deep') SOUTH | ||||||||
| South Carolina | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||
| Georgia | 15 | 2 | 6 | 7 | ||||
| Alabama | 9 | 2 | 3 | 4 | ||||
| Mississippi | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| Louisiana | 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | |||
| LOWER SOUTH subTotal | 47 | 1 | 9 | 15 | 22 | |||
| the UPPER (aka 'Border') SOUTH | ||||||||
| North Carolina | 15 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 5 | |||
| Virginia | 13 | 2 | 6 | 5 | ||||
| Kentucky | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||||
| Tennessee | 11 | 2 | 5 | 4 | ||||
| Arkansas | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| UPPER SOUTH subTotal | 28 | 25 | 5 | 5 | 24 | 19 | ||
| SOUTH Grand Total | 28 | 72 | 6 | 14 | 39 | 41 | ||
| TEXAS | 34 | 2 | 12 | 20 | ||||
| the WEST | ||||||||
| the OPEN (aka 'Intermountain' or 'old Frontier') WEST | ||||||||
| New Mexico | 5 | 2 | 3 | |||||
| Arizona | 10 | 2 | 5 | 3 | ||||
| Nevada | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |||
| Utah | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Colorado | 9 | 2 | 5 | 2 | ||||
| Wyoming | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Idaho | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Montana | 3 | 2 | 1 | |||||
| Alaska | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| OPEN WEST subTotal | 19 | 28 | 8 | 10 | 17 | 12 | ||
| the PACIFIC States | ||||||||
| Washington | 11 | 2 | 6 | 3 | ||||
| Oregon | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 | ||||
| California | 55 | 2 | 34 | 19 | ||||
| Hawai'i | 4 | 2 | 2 | |||||
| PACIFIC States subTotal | 77 | 8 | 46 | 23 | ||||
| WEST Grand Total | 96 | 28 | 16 | 10 | 63 | 35 | ||
| FINAL TOTAL | 365 | 173 | 57 | 41 | 2 | 257 | 178 | |
| STATE | Obama [Dem] | McCain [Rep] | Dem | Rep | other | Dem | Rep | other |
| ELECTORAL VOTES for PRESIDENT | UNITED STATES SENATE | U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES | ||||||