I am mainly interested in non-large metropolitan areas, ie, suburbs, small cities, and rural areas as I would assume all parties represent themselves as well as they can in large cities.
My Carolina uncle and aunt have a notion that pretty much of the most “Yankee” states/North are liberals and democratic voters regardless of whether within large city limits or suburbs and rural areas.
An African American lady (a nurse) I knew once told me she was going to vote for little Bush because she thought him cute and just for a change, a random change. She believed choices are pretty much the same everywhere, ie, all three parties are equally represented everywhere. I told her that she should take a drive outside the city limits and see for herself. This gave me a feeling that city folks have no idea as well.
In my experience, in the suburbs outside large metropolitan areas where I have voted (NW & W suburbs of Chicago) democratic choices are generally ‘hardly to nil’, let alone 3rd parties; though I have to say* I think *it is very slightly improving but don’t know what might be the cause for sure.
What about your neck of the woods based on your previous voting experience?
Locally the Democrats do pretty good, for state level stuff they seem to send more Republicans, national level stuff is a mixed bag - with good ones at all levels getting voted out for pretty stupid reasons, and bad ones elected and re-elected for equally stupid reasons. Most folks seem to vote on name recognition, personality, party and single hot button issues… in that order.
Currently in MA - Democrats are the vast majority, some races don’t have a Republican candidate. Most major races have a candidate from both parties, even if the Republican doesn’t garner many votes.
Used to live in NH - At the time I was there NH was strongly Republican, but there were always Democrats on the ballot. I rarely saw an uncontested race. Perhaps there were more in northern NH but I don’t think that was common.
I’ve done most of my voting in VT, which is something of an outlier in being both very rural and very liberal. Despite that, there’s usually a Republican running, even if they don’t do particularly well.
Its also fairly unique in having a fairly strong third party presence, so its not unusual to have three-way races for state offices. This probably keeps the GOP more competitive then they would be, since the Dems and Progressives sometimes split the liberal vote.
I live in a suburban town in Upstate NY near Albany. Tuesday, the following seats were up for election:
3 State Supreme Court Justices (1 Democrat and 3 Republicans ran)
1 Surrogate Court Judge (1 Republican and no Democrats ran)
2 Coroners (2 Republicans and no Democrats ran)
1 County Supervisor (1 Republican and no Democrats ran)
1 Town Supervisor (1 Republican and 1 Democrat ran)
1 Town Clerk (1 Republican and no Democrats ran)
1 Town Justice (1 Republican and no Democrats ran)
2 Council Members (2 Republicans and 1 Democrat ran)
1 Highway Superintendent (1 Republican and no Democrats ran)
So, at least in my town, your aunt and uncle’s theory isn’t true. My county is pretty overwhelmingly Republican, Albany County is pretty overwhelmingly Democratic (Except for, until recently, the Town of Colonie, which was pretty solidly Republican until the Democrats won big in 2009).
Wow, local elections? We’re damn near a one-party state hereabouts, which makes me roll my eyes when people tell me I wouldn’t want to live in a one-party state, because I do already. There is a Missouri Democratic Party, and they occasionally find some poor sap to run up a flagpole and lose miserably in this corner of the state, but it’s mostly no-hopers. A lot of races are decided in the GOP primary, and even Democrats will vote in the GOP primary (we have open primaries) knowing that the local populace will vote 2-1 for the GOP nominee in the general.
A friend of a friend did win a county office as a Democrat once, though. He had connections at a local church with strong Christian Coalition associations, & so the local religious right yokels decided he wasn’t an “evil liberal.”
You have to go far away from San Francisco before you get any Republican representation. All the nearby Bay Area suburbs are represented by Democrats at every level.
North Texas county, there isn’t a single Democrat in office. Within the last few years Democrats that wanted to stay in office became Republicans, the rest were voted out. There are still Democrat contenders in some of the elections, but they don’t come close. The neighboring county that I work in is the same way.
I live in Philadelphia. The city is solidly democrat as is Harrisburg. I’m not sure about Pittsburgh. The rest of the state is very much Christian Conservative Republican.
In California, all city and county elections are nonpartisan. When it comes to races like mayor of SF, the media verifies party membership of all candidates, but for smaller offices, it’s not always apparent.
That said, you’re mostly right. Although there are a significant number of Greens and independents at the local level, and there’s probably a Republican or two in Danville or something. But as far as Congress and the state legislature, it’s all Democrats.
I live in Miami County, Ohio. That’s part of John Boehner’s congressional district. It’s also one of the handful of Ohio’s 88 counties that failed to reject Issue 2/Senate Bill 5. When I went to the polls last Tuesday, I don’t believe I saw any candidate for local office who had a (D) after his name. Democrats who want to hold public office have to run as Republicans, and rumor has it that a few have successfully done so. I’m a Democrat and we are most definitely an endangered species in this county.
I know that, last year, we had mostly Greens or Independents v. Democrats. Only the higher up offices had Republicans. I don’t believe we had an election this year–no one talked about it, and I couldn’t find anything about it online.