Last edited Wed Aug 15, 2012, 04:08 AM - Edit history (1)

W Bush won it. Obama beat McCain by 3.5 points, but McCain was a weak candidate and wasn't really contesting Wisconsin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin%27s_1st_congressional_district

Before you jump to conclusions, make sure their foundation is strong.

Any idea where I might find stats on earlier presidential races. Obviously what I "heard" is not correct.

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/states/president/wisconsin.html

The little dusting on pink you see down by the Illinois border is Walworth County, which McCain won with 51% of the vote. Walworth is largely ruraly, but it includes the enclave of Lake Geneva, which I imagine runs pretty red. Just north of that is Waukesha County (where I live) and it's the single-largest source of Republican votes in the State of Wisconsin.

And yes, it sucks to be me.

He even jokes by saying his family is so big they could fill a stadium.

He said that Ryan'district doesn't include any major cities. It's mainly small towns, rural, and suburban areas with a very low number of minorities. That makes more sense than the inaccurate "he won in a blue area" meme. Ryan's challenger was also on & said Ryan's popularity in the district is waning because of his extreme positions on Medicare and Personhood along with ignoring his district in favor of galavanting around the country on national teabagger business. Wouldn't it be awesome if he lost BOTH elections? Unlikely with his local race, but a girl can dream, can't she?

62,516 people is a "small town"?

And what are Kenosha and Racine? Small towns, or suburbs?

I'd call them ex-urbs, although they are part of the greater Milwaukee-Chicago metro area. They are cities in their own right, Kenosha with 96,000 people and Racine with 82,000.

The district is 90.1% white, compared to 86% for the whole state. But Wisconsin's 3rd district, where I once lived, has been represented by a Democrat, Ron Kind, since 1997 and is 96.6% white and 56.85% rural (according to wiki (I am not sure how they define rural)). The 1st is only 15.87% rural.

Yet the 3rd, unlike the 1st voted for John Kerry in 2004.

Many voters do not vote straight party line. I saw that in Iowa. The district voted for Gore by 60-40, but also re-elected the Republican Nussle by about 60-40.

.. the exurbs are very conservative and full of whiteflighters
and white wannabes.

They have their own history and are really not "part of" either Milwaukee of Chicago. They have older downtown areas and industry of their own -- these aren't just bedroom communities.

call it small town all the time.