Democrats Need W.Va., Ark. to Swing Back Their Way 2008

[Adelante]

West Virginia and Arkansas may be the most unnatural states to have twice backed President Bush.

And Democrats are working to bring those two traditionally Democratic states back into the fold.

With strong labor unions a backbone of the political culture, West Virginia had, until recently, been a Democratic bastion in presidential politics. West Virginia was one of only six states to stick with President Jimmy Carter in his 1980 landslide loss to Ronald Reagan, and voters there also backed Michael Dukakis in his 1988 thumping at the hands of George H.W. Bush.

Arkansas is a similarly ancestrally Democratic state that voted for the Republican presidential nominee in 2000 and 2004. Though Arkansas has trended Republican in recent decades like its Southern neighbors, the majority of elected officials are still Democrats.

West Virginia, with its five electoral votes, and Arkansas, with its six, represent the sort of states a Democratic candidate would need to win for the party to regain the White House. As Democratic strategists survey the national political landscape more than 20 months before the November 2008 election, West Virginia and Arkansas are at the top of states that must be pried away from Republicans.

The key to victory there, analysts suggest, is in trotting out a candidate who would appeal to those states' largely rural constituencies, while maintaining support from Democratic coastal elites. That's the sort of political balancing act President Bill Clinton executed in his 1992 and 1996 victories, which included support from several Southern states.

-snip

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0207/2923.html

[AX10]

1. I agree.

[illinoisprogressive]

2. with Dean's 50 state and the Dems working on the west, it would be more of a nice

but not neccessary. We have the west folding into our tent and that will help us pick up where we fall in the south. Plus we have VA pulling more blue. A few others are going purple now. We are expanding.

[NV1962]

6. Uh, you might want to look closer at the 50 state strategy

The West isn't "folding" just by itself, it's simply starting to respond to the 50 state strategy. And that means: fighting in each and every one of the 50 states, paying attention to the local play books, and stop pouring the one-size-fits-all goo over the insulted heads of an entire nation.

States like AR and WV are within grasp. But it has to be earned. And it's not going to happen when the battle tactics are dictated from places remote from the battle front.

It's not an "infection" of sorts - it's a hard-fought war, won state by state, county by county, block by block.

[Adelante]

3. This is good advice

"Be who you are, because they're going to find out sooner or later."

[skipos]

4. While WV is trending Repub and AR is steady Repub, VA is trending Dem

State / 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004
West Virginia: 12d, 7d, 6d, 7r, 10r
Arkansas / 6r, 12d, 8d, 6r, 7r (Clinton caused the big spikes in 92 and 96)
Virginia / 13r, 10r, 10r, 9r, 6r

[judy from nj]

5. WVA and AR are important states for the Dems

I think they have a good chance to take VA also. It all depends on the candidate. I think it will be a long slow process to take the border states, but we need to keep trying.