GOP Plants Flag on New Voting Frontier

Bush's huge victory in the fast-growing areas beyond the suburbs alters the political map.

WASHINGTON — The center of the Republican presidential coalition is moving toward the distant edges of suburbia.

In this month's election, President Bush carried 97 of the nation's 100 fastest-growing counties, most of them "exurban" communities that are rapidly transforming farmland into subdivisions and shopping malls on the periphery of major metropolitan areas.
Together, these fast-growing communities provided Bush a punishing 1.72 million vote advantage over Democrat John F. Kerry, according to a Times analysis of election results. That was almost half the president's total margin of victory.

"These exurban counties are the new Republican areas, and they will become increasingly important to Republican candidates," said Terry Nelson, the political director for Bush's reelection campaign. "This is where a lot of our vote is."

These growing areas, filled largely with younger families fleeing urban centers in search of affordable homes, are providing the GOP a foothold in blue Democratic-leaning states and solidifying the party's control over red Republican-leaning states.

They also represent a compounding asset whose value for the Republican Party has increased with each election: Bush's edge in these 100 counties was almost four times greater than the advantage they provided Bob Dole, the Republican presidential nominee eight years ago.

In states like Ohio, Minnesota and Virginia, Republican strength in these outer suburbs is offsetting Democratic gains over the last decade in more established — and often more affluent — inner-tier suburbs. As Democrats analyze a demoralizing defeat in this month's presidential election, one key question they face is whether they can reduce the expanding Republican advantage on the new frontier between suburbs and countryside.

Both Wine Counties are in the same situation.

The rats don't even admit to being rats when they run for the city council. That has been part of their taking control plan for the past two decades.

Part of the problem are the left wing colleges and universities which attract and hold rats in our areas. Then we throw in left wing newspapers and the Gay Frisco TV channels, the result is 24/7/365 spewing of the left wing PC agendas.

The coastal counties may not be stagnant or declining in population here yet but the Democrats can't break through into interior "Red" California

Well, then there now - get 'em all separated out and then give that Pacific Plate a good shake - and "Red" California will be on the coast...

sounds like a good plan for separating the wheat from the chaff?

Here's the list of the 100 fastest-growing counties from April 1, 2000 to July 1, 2003 (the last date for which the Census Bureau has an estimate): http://www.census.gov/popest/counties/CO-EST2003-09.html

I wanted to see which were the 3 counties that were among the 100 fastest growing but which voted for Senator Kerry over President Bush, and I must say that the answer makes it even more apparent that the GOP owns the exurbs. The 3 fastest-growing Kerry counties were:

Clark County, NV (#53 on the list): Clark County gave Kerry 51.7% of the vote, largely due to the fact that Las Vegas and some of its inner-ring suburbs (such as heavily black North Las Vegas) are in Clark County, but the fast-growing parts of the county vote Republican. If Clark County was split into three or four normal-sized counties instead of being a county that comprises 70% of Nevada's total population, only the inner-city county would have voted for Kerry.

Nantucket County, MA (#86 on the list): Nantucket County made the list because its small population grew by 1,204 people in the 3+ years in question, from 9,520 to 10,724. It is by no means an exurban county, and its growth comes from an increase in wealthy resort denizens who have chosen to make their "cottages" their primary home.

Chatham County, NC (#100 on the list): Chatham County is the only true exurban county carried by Kerry among the 100 fastest growing, but it is the exception that proves the rule, since (i) it barely made the list of the fastest-growing counties, (ii) a large chunk of its population growth came from Hispanic immigrants who moved there to work in the poultry industry, and most of them are not U.S. citizens and thus unable to vote, and (iii) Kerry's unofficial winning margin in the county was 5 votes, and it is quite possible that when they add all of the absentee votes to the official numbers it will turn out that President Bush actually carried the county in 2004.

So stating that in 2004 President Bush carried 97 of the 100 fastest-growing counties in America actually underestimates President Bush's dominance in fast-growing communities.

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