The Citistates Group

ROBERT LANG: In 2004, the Bush campaign painted the town red—Republican red. The president swept the vote in the nation’s small towns and cities, which the U.S. Census Bureau now officially labels as “micropolitan areas” (or Micros). Bush’s micropolitan voting edge in Ohio exceeded his winning margin in the state by over 18,000 ballots. The Ohio victory gave George Bush 286 electoral votes to John Kerry’s 252, and thus the presidency.

An analysis of the 2004 vote prepared by the Metropolitan Institute at Virginia Tech and as reported by USA Today, shows:
· Bush won micropolitan areas by a margin of 61 to 39 percent over Kerry.
· Bush’s micropolitan vote went from 57 percent in 2000 to 61 percent in 2004.
· Of 573 micropolitan areas, 474 went to Bush, while Kerry had the edge in just 99.
· Bush won 27 of Ohio’s 29 Micros.


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CURT JOHNSON: Salt Lake City — Here this week to participate in a meeting of the national Alliance for Regional Stewardship (ARS), I find a region reveling in dramatic change. The political map colors Salt Lake City “red”, but enough urban values usually seen as “blue” show up too. That blend colors this place a marvelous merlot.

In less than a decade this region, this charter member of western individualism culture has shifted from a roads-and-cars (lots of trucks) mindset about transportation toward the balance that comes from a sophisticated system of transit. On top of two highly popular light rail lines, the region’s captured a network of 175 miles of existing rail lines interconnecting most of the valley’s cities and employment centers. Polls show 88 percent of people in the region strongly support more investment in rail transit.
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BILL FULTON: California — that big blue state — is also the epicenter of a peculiar form of direct democracy: ballot-box zoning. With the constitution assuring easy access to the ballot, environmentalists, disgruntled citizens, and developers alike swamp the ballot, seeking the end-run around local elected officials. Now, the ballot-box zoning idea may be crossing the state’s red-blue line.

Up to now, there’s been a deep division within California on ballot-box zoning. The “blue” coastal counties — where Democrats rack up huge margins — have been rife with ballot-box zoning for years.
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