Just wondered: Why are Colorado and New Mexico

[johan helge]

blue islands in a sea of red states?

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/#data

[drmeow]

1. As far as Colorado is concerned

I would guess environmental issues play a role.

[dkofos]

2. Haven't they just recently turned blue?

[EFerrari]

7. Yes. And both have a long history of very dirty elections. n/t

[JackintheGreen]

3. Native Americans + Albuquerque?

:shrug:

[Warpy]

4. Both were big UMW states

and have a lefty tradition just under the surface. Also in NM, the Hispanos with long memories know that the only time anybody seemed to realize this was a state was during FDR's administration. The New Deal was very good for this state, even if the Feds did use it for a radioactive dumping ground during the Manhattan Project.

I still think that the progressive resurgence will begin out west.

[GirlieQ]

5. Colorado is a strange flyover state.

My husband was born in CO, and I moved there when I was 5. We both live in Colorado now.

Colorado went for Clinton one of his terms, so we've been blue in the past. The issue is that we have populated areas (Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins... the towns nestled right between the mountains and the plains) that swing very liberal, and we have farmers. For instance, Marilyn Musgrave is my House 'representative' because the entire Eastern Plains and Fort Collins are gerrymandered into one district. I'm sorry about her.

There are hotbeds of intellectualism in the state, particularly around the Fort Collins area. 13% of adults in FC are employed by the university (CSU), and there are huge engineering firms here. In a town of 150k or so, we have AMD, HP, Intel, LSI Logic, Avago, Broadcom, and others. Engineers trend to fiscal conservatism, and to some extent social conservatism. The old guard are retiring, though, and us younger engineers are more liberal. We're also insanely focused on the market. If people have 5% less money to spend on luxuries, they aren't going to want to spend in an electronics sector.

[fizzgig]

6. howdy, neighbor

:hi:

i'm sorry about musgrave too x(