Twenty-three states are dominated by Republicans, 13 by Democrats.

[a kennedy]

This little bit of news hit me pretty hard..... didn't know so many states were dominated by repubs. Found this little tidbit in this article:

Twinned Cities Now Following Different Paths.

DULUTH, Minn. — The soaring Blatnik Bridge spans a modest body of water but a political gulf.

Most mornings around 7, Kim and Kyle Smith drive a mile and a half across the bridge from Duluth, where they live, to Superior, Wis., where they teach. On the same bridge most mornings, scores of workers from Superior head the opposite direction, making their way to a foundry that Andy Fulton’s company runs in Duluth.

This is a well-traveled commute between the Minnesota and Wisconsin cities, separated by the St. Louis River. Together, they are known as the Twin Ports for their shared role as a major cargo port, and people on both sides share Scandinavian, German and Irish roots, working-class pasts and a stoic sensibility hardened by a steady chill off Lake Superior.

But these days, when residents cross the bridge, they enter starkly different political territories. Since Republicans in Wisconsin took control of the State Legislature and governor’s office in 2011, and since Democrats gained full dominance in Minnesota last year, people here have watched essential elements of their daily lives — their savings plans, job expectations, personal relationships and health insurance — veer apart.

For the Smiths, like other members of public sector labor unions, working on the Wisconsin side has meant rising personal contributions for health insurance and pensions and a union with drastically less negotiating power. For Mr. Fulton, like many business executives, running a company on the Minnesota side has meant bracing for new business taxes and higher income taxes. Mr. Fulton, a third-generation foundryman, has worked in Minnesota long enough to recall the decision to open the Duluth operation in 1980, a period when life looked much the same on either side of the border, many say.

“Knowing then what we know now, would we even do it in the state of Minnesota anywhere?” said Mr. Fulton, the president of ME Global, which operates the foundry. “I doubt it. We would go to another location. It’s an expensive place to do business.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/13/us/twinned-cities-now-following-different-paths.html?_r=0

Very interesting read.

[Proud Public Servant]

1. Several of those GOP-dominated states

Are anomolies and the product of the 2010 GOP wave; I doubt they'll still be GOP-dominated after November. I'm thinking of WI, MI, OH and PA in particular.

Beyong that, though, the GOP has had a numerical advantage in the states for a while, because they control the big empties.

[Chan790]

2. ...and there is the big issue.

We, as a party, have no idea how to compete in the big empties with electorates that we actually should be winning.

[Proud Public Servant]

4. I think we're getting there

If you look at that Times map, we're nibbling around the edges of a formerly solid-red Plains and Rocky Mountain states. Montana's no longer solid, nor is Nevada or New Mexico; Colorado's actually blue. But, sure, the Dem message of interdependence and tolerance is always going to be a harder sell in homogenous states with a long ideological tradition of rugged individualism, and Rooseveltian federal policy is always going be a hard sell in the states-rights-crazy Confederacy.

[Chan790]

5. There's a framing issue.

Nobody is offering them "rugged individualism". The age of rugged individualism is past...nobody offers it for the same reason, we don't talk about burning wood as an energy source or steam-engines; those things are dead, killed by the circumstance of the modern age. There is no means to be independent, much like I rail against isolationist pacifism because that too is an impossibility.

We may be offering community and interdependence but the GOP is offering them serfdom and dependence on big business. I'd much rather depend on my neighbors than depend on WalMart as the slave working to never be free of the company store.

[AlinPA]

6. I'm not so sure about PA. The State Senate is solidly republican; the State House keeps ending

with more teabaggers. The US House seats are dominated by republicans by a large margin (13/18 seats are GOP) During presidential elections we can make gains, but in off years the republicans make advances.

[Proud Public Servant]

7. I'm counting on them to lose the governorship

How do you think it looks?

[AlinPA]

8. Corbett's days are numbered. He will have the frackers behind him but it won't fly this time.

[onehandle]

3. Thank the idiots that didn't get to the polls in 2010.

Voted for Obama in 2008.

Made him basically a lame duck with a veto in 2010.

[polichick]

9. Or you can thank "Dem leaders" that don't act like Democrats...

once they get into office - so that voters say fuck it.

[DJ13]

10. Very telling

Wisconsin pushes the tax burden onto the average person, Minnesota makes the businesses pay a greater share.

And, typical, the business owner cries how its unfair.

[packman]

11. Don't you find

that Republicans will get out and vote in local elections, be they school board or governor races. Perhaps they get more worked up and energized with their paranoid delusions and fears. Banning a book suggesting a gay life style is important enough to them to vote for the nut-case who is using it as a keystone in his campaign. Or voting for a state senator because he has an fixation with his gun, while Dems just say, "the hell with voting, it's not that important". BUT, will turn out for the Presidential vote because-well, it's just once every four years isn't it?

Basically, we're lazy shits who need to get off our cans and get involved.