A Fresh Look at Ohio's Political Landscape

A few years ago, I wrote a piece for the Miami Vally Conservative Alliance in which I laid out analysis that Ohio was actually a Lavender State, despite the big wins by Ohio Republicans and President Bush in '04.

This map I put together has its flaws, which we can debate in the comments, but I think it illustrates fairly well what I think the reality of Ohio as a Purple State.



KEY:

Red = Counties won by Bush04 and Blackwell06
Purple = Counties won by Bush04 and Strickland06 OR Kerry04 and Blackwell06
Blue = Counties won by Kerry04 and Strickland06

NOTES / OBSERVATIONS:

There are LOTS of opportunites in southern Ohio for a conservative Democrat (that ain't Obama) to make inroads.

Northwest Ohio seems pretty solidly Republican as does most of Southwestern Ohio.

Northeast Ohio seems pretty solidly Democratic.

Central Ohio looks to be a free-for-all.

6/4/08 UPDATE: There was interest among the NextRight readers of the piece based on this one for a map of the Clinton/Obama primary. Here it is...

[Note to self: RE-PLACE THE CLINTON/OBAMA MAP - In the meantime, Obama won five counties, none of which were Purple, in fact, they are the BROWN and CYAN counties in the next map.]

KEY:

Cyan counties were won by Clinton in the Dem Primary

Blue counties were won by Obama in the Dem Primary

So the end result is this:



KEY:

Red = Counties won by Bush04 and Blackwell06
Purple = Counties won by Bush04 and Strickland06 OR Kerry04 and Blackwell06
Blue = Counties won by Kerry04 and Strickland06
Brown = Red Counties that voted for Obama in Dem Primary of '08
Cyan = Blue Counties that voted for Obama in Dem Primary of '08

6/4/08 UPDATE 2: By request I have added in the keys for the two new maps. I have been informed that I mis-identified Lake County's voting record. I'll verify that and make appropriate changes as soon as I get a chance to do so.

6/5/08 UPDATE 1: Lake County has been fixed (was inaccurately BLUE; now is PURPLE). I am not sure I can fix the graphic on NextRight as Photobucket is being really difficult to work with to replace the image.