A handful of the most conservative states are picking up more defense jobs than the country at large is losing. What's up with that?
First, the partisan breakout --
Purple states are gaining average of 494 defense jobs apiece (10,863 total)
Safe Red states pick up 196 jobs (3,717 total)
Blue states lose an average 2,701 jobs. (minus 27,008 total).
However, this does not tell the whole tale. More below the break.
I went to the trouble of creating a spreadsheet for the net job impact of the proposed base closing and realignments. Source:
defenselink.mil - check it out
I was surprised to see how many states will be picking up work.
Legend on Classifications B=Blue R=Red P=Purple NA=Not applicable (for territories and overseas)
Sorted in Descending Order
State Net Change Classification
Maryland........09,293.............P
Georgia.........07,423.............R
Texas...........06,150.............R
Colorado........04,917.............P
Oklahoma........03,919.............R
Arkansas........03,585.............P
Kansas..........03,582.............R
Florida.........02,757.............P
Alabama.........02,664.............R
Indiana.........02,197.............R
Tennessee.......01,088.............R
Nevada..........01,059.............P
Washington......00,760.............P
South Carolina..00,709.............R
Rhode Island....00,531.............P
Massachusetts...00,491.............B
Ohio............00,241.............P
Michigan........00,125.............P
Delaware........00,091.............B
Vermont.........00,056.............P
Wyoming.........00,037.............R
New Hampshire...00,004.............P
Iowa............-00,006............P
Guam............-00,095............NA
Montana.........-00,124............P
Puerto Rico.....-00,161............NA
Nebraska........-00,213............P
West Virginia...-00,251............P
Minnesota.......-00,262............P
Hawaii..........-00,298............P
North Carolina..-00,422............P
Utah............-00,446............R
Arizona.........-00,550............P
Wisconsin.......-00,552............P
Idaho...........-00,659............R
New York........-01,071............B
Oregon..........-01,083............B
Louisiana.......-01,297............R
Virginia........-01,574............R
Mississippi.....-01,678............R
Pennsylvania....-01,878............B
California......-02,018............B
North Dakota....-02,645............R
Illinois........-02,698............B
New Mexico......-02,849............P
Kentucky........-03,658............R
Missouri........-03,679............R
New Jersey......-03,760............B
South Dakota....-03,797............R
Alaska..........-04,619............R
DC..............-06,496............B
Maine...........-06,938............P
Connecticut.....-08,586............B
Overseas........-13,503............NA
I also ran a quick pivot table, to tally up total job impact.
Class Sum Change Average Change
B (27,008) (2,701)
NA (13,759) (4,586)
P 10,863 494
R 3,717 196
Grand Total (26,187) (485)
I stand corrected
States the Pubs see as Blue are getting eviscerated. I mean, it's not even close in terms of jobs, either in aggregate or by-state average.
States the Pubs see as Purple are getting preferential treatment, even over the Red states. Is this pandering for votes, or what?
The Pubs are throwing their faithful a few cookies, but as Republicans are wont to do, the gains are grossly uneven. A core cadre of seven GOP states - Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Alabama, Indiana and Tennessee -- what I would classify as the highest-scoring on a Protestant fundamentalist index -- are gaining 27,023 jobs when the country at large is losing 26,187.
It gets better: In order to make this lopsided increase happen, all the other Republican states -- mostly in the northern-tier Midwest and Montain regions -- are losing 23,286 defense jobs -- close to as many as the Blue states are, and in per-capita and as a percentage of state products, a far more devastating salvo.
The Blue states have resources in plenty to exploit the sudden departure of legions that Caesar rules must defend other provinces.
The Red states that are being gutted cannot say the same.