The LA Times has
new analysis of the election results. Here are the hard numbers:
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.
[snip]
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.
I'm an urbanite through and through, so I have little or no insight into the minds of these "exurbanites," who I take to be people in new, formerly rural communities, that are forming a second, outer rings of surburbia outside the more traditional suburbs closer to the cities.
Are there any Kossacks who live in these populations?
What motivates this new breed of "exurban" voter discussed in the article?
Can anyone provide "on the ground reporting" on the nuts and bolts of these new exurban communities.