By one measure, O.C. reddest of red (Orange County California has Bush's biggest margin of victory)

The Orange County Register ^ | Monday, December 6, 2004

[So Cal Rocket]

The claim that Orange County is the country's most GOP county lost a bit of luster a few years ago when slipping Republican registration here meant it didn't even have the highest percentage of GOP voters in the state, let alone nationwide.

But the claim is back, and not because it has regained its ranking in terms of percentage of registration.

Rather, the county brought home November's largest margin of victory for George W. Bush. Of the nation's 3,066 counties, Orange County had the incumbent beating John Kerry by 222,593 votes. Second was Maricopa County, Ariz., with a 174,606-vote margin.

Large urban counties tend to vote Democrat, and numerous other counties found Bush winning by a higher percentage than the 60 percent here - Collin County, Texas, for instance, had Bush with 71 percent of the vote. And of course, Orange County's margin of victory was ultimately meaningless to Bush's win, since the state went to Kerry.

But it is a strong indication of how Democrat voters are outnumbered by Republican voters - enough to give Republicans here bragging rights once again.

"This is why we claim we're the most Republican county in the nation," said Scott Baugh, chairman of the county party.

[RockinRight]

There is hope for California.

[SteveMcKing]

I'm shocked. Media would have you think O.C. is New Beverley Hills.

[GraniteStateConservative]

Do something about Joe Dunn and Loretta Sanchez, then.

[1Old Pro]

Didn't sanchez beat dornan in this district?? Bush must get the Hispanic vote

[So Cal Rocket]

Nothing I can do about them, they don't live in my district... they represent Santa Ana, which is about 80% Hispanic.

Dr. Coronado was a decent GOP candidate against Sanchez, but she still only got 39% of the vote.

[pissant]

Must be that new evening soap opera "The O.C." that my wife watches that swayed everyone for Bush. What a pathetic excuse of a show it is!

[ER_in_OC,CA]

Orange County has a significant population, and the demographics are not the same district to district. Loretta Sanchez is but one of many (my fast guess: 7) Congresspersons from OC. Sanchez doesn't represent Orange County, just her district.

Some notable congressmen from OC include Dana Rohrbacher and Christopher Cox.

Sanchez' seat gets safer and safer -- a result of gerrymandering which makes all but a few congressional races statewide (in a state with 51 reps) competitive.

[GVnana]

Orange County is back? This is good news.

[So Cal Rocket]

Orange County has 6 Congressional Districts, represented by:

40th: Ed Royce (R) - 68% of vote
42nd: Gary Miller (R) - 68% of vote
44th: Ken Calvert (R) - 62% of vote
46th: Dana Rohrabacher (R) - 62% of vote
47th: Loretta Sanchez (D) - 60% of vote
48th: Chris Cox (R) - 65% of vote

Interesting factoid... of these 6 congressional races, the Democrat with the LEAST number of votes cast was.... Loretta Sanchez (she won with 65,684 votes). Next lowest was J. Tilman Williams who lost (with 69,684 votes) to Royce's 147,617 votes.

[adam_az]

"Second was Maricopa County, Ariz., with a 174,606-vote margin."

My adopted home!

[ER_in_OC,CA]

As you are surely aware, CA has a congressional delegation several times that of your state. Therefore, our districts in many areas are very small in geographical size and are subject to incumbent-protecting gerrymandering.

This district was formerly held by Robert Dornan. He lost a very close election due to the following factors:
1) Over time, I believe the borders of his district shifted more toward a heavily hispanic area.
2) It is argued with some merit that Sanchez benefitted from illegal votes (ie non-citizens) generated by advocacy groups.
3) Dornan's reputation for hyperbole garnered him a growing reputation for being a bit of a nut amongst the general electorate.
4) The demographics of Dornan's district shifted to a greater percentage of some ethnic gropus who on average are more likely to vote Democrat.

Sanchez' district has become more safe because of demographics and because she is well liked by enough voters to put her over the top.

Orange County alone has more members of the House of Representatives than your state. The total is 4 -- I just checked, my guess above was wrong. So you may not experience how slight demographic shifts and/or district boundary movement of a mile or two one direction can change party control.

[ER_in_OC,CA]

Gaaaa! I forgot Miller/Calvert!

I'm already losing it since I moved to the Inland Empire!

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

OC, CA ping

[MeekOneGOP]

bump!

[Carry_Okie]

Do something about Joe Dunn and Loretta Sanchez, then.

These thugs are direct beneficiaries of artful gerrymandering.

[AuH2ORepublican]

"Orange County has 6 Congressional Districts, represented by:

40th: Ed Royce (R) - 68% of vote
42nd: Gary Miller (R) - 68% of vote
44th: Ken Calvert (R) - 62% of vote
46th: Dana Rohrabacher (R) - 62% of vote
47th: Loretta Sanchez (D) - 60% of vote
48th: Chris Cox (R) - 65% of vote

Interesting factoid... of these 6 congressional races, the Democrat with the LEAST number of votes cast was.... Loretta Sanchez (she won with 65,684 votes). Next lowest was J. Tilman Williams who lost (with 69,684 votes) to Royce's 147,617 votes."

---

Very interesting, and quite intentional. While all of California's congressional districts have the same population, Loretta Sanchez's CD is like 65% Hispanic and includes a lot of non-citizens, including many illegal aliens. Thus, it has fewer registered voters than the other OC districts, and Sanchez is able to win with a small number of votes. That's also the case in the other Hispanic-majority districts in California, as well as those in NY, IL, AZ and TX.

The Constitution requires an actual enumeration (the Census) of the inhabitants of each state, and those numbers are used to apportion representatives among the states and to draw congressional districts within each state. Excluded from the Census count are people who are not permanent residents of the state on Census Day, such as people who are travelling on that day or tourists from other countries. I believe that Congress should pass a law so that in the 2010 Census persons who are not U.S. citizens or legal non-citizen residents (legal residents, even if they are not citizens, are clearly inhabitants of their home states) are not counted for purposes of the apportionment of representatives, although they can be counted for other purposes, such as hospital funding, etc.).

By excluding illegal aliens from the count, it would eliminate the "rotten borough" districts in which only 100,000 voters, 400,000 legal residents and 250,000 citizens have the same representation as a next-door district with 300,000 voters, 650,000 legal residents and 600,000 citizens. It would result in states like California losing like 3 electoral votes, Texas losing like 2, Florida probably losing 1, and perhaps one or two other states losing EVs as well. And within those states, it would eliminate several Democrat congressional districts, since areas with a lot of illegal aliens would have fewer congressional districts than they do today (for example, there would surely be one fewer CD in South Texas and probably one fewer CD in Houston, and it would be Democrat districts that would have to go).

I think Congress should get cracking on this issue right away, since once President Bush's temporary-guest-worker program (which I conditionally support so long as it is clear that temporary guest workers won't be bringing in their families or qualify for eventual citizenship) is adopted, there will be an even greater increase in the number of non-residents aliens in the U.S., and the presence of such temporary workers should not affect the right to one-man, one-vote among the electorate. Maybe it can be part of the negotiation for the approval of the guset-worker program.

And while Congress is at it, it should amend the law so that it is clear that (i) U.S. citizens who are temporarily away from their home states are counted in the Census (thousands of Utahans were unfairly excluded from the count because they were serving one-year stints as Mormon missionaries abroad, even though they still voted and paid taxes in Utah), (ii) the sampling practice of "hot-deck imputation" (in which if no one answers in a house or apartment after several visits, the Census worker will assume that the house or apartment houses the same number of persons as the average persons per unit in the neighborhood), and (iii) college students and other persons who are temporarily in another state be counted only once, in their home state. Representation is serious business, and we can't let people play with the system and result in the disenfranchisement of millions of voters.

[AFPhys]

It doesn't really matter until they have enough extra votes to swing the rest of CA to red.

[occutegirl]

Yeah Orange County!