Indiana and Virgina go blue, but some states remain uncalled day after election

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GLENN MONSOURI: [?] [11:30]

Hi. I’m Glenn Monsouri from Midland Park, New Jersey. I’m 54 years old and I lived through all the turbulence of the ’60s, and to watch Mr. Obama’s speech last night, I haven’t felt these feelings in quite some time and hoped that in my lifetime I would again. And I do.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

What just happened? Answering the question there at 877-8MYTAKE or you can email us at Mytake@thetakeaway.org and help Barack Obama get prepared to be president on January 20th.

So thinking about this election, looking maybe at the MRI of the American electorate that we’ll be doing for some days now as we count the numbers. Still some states are doing that counting.

But Virginia, toss-up state Virginia, a battleground state, Indiana, battleground states, that’s very, very interesting. In those states people woke up to a place that was maybe a little different than they thought it was on Monday.

Tommie McNeill is political reporter for Virginia Public Radio. He joins us from Richmond. Tom, Tommie, thanks for being with us.

TOMMIE McNEILL:

Thank you, and good morning.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

And Micah Schweizer, who’s a reporter for Public Radio Station WNIN in Evansville, Indiana, in the fascinating state of ? the newly fascinating [LAUGHS] state of Indiana ? Micah joins us. Thanks for being with us from Evansville.

MICAH SCHWEIZER:

Good morning.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

So, Tommie, let me begin with you. The way Virginia broke last night, which, first of all, was thought to be more in play than it was but it ended up being a very, very interesting look at what’s changed in Virginia even in the last four years. Explain.

TOMMIE McNEILL:

Well, I mean, you hit the nail on the head. What just happened? Literally, Virginia turned blue overnight. I mean, now there are six of eleven Congressional districts controlled by Democrats. There are now the two Democrats representing Virginia as U.S. Senators.

I mean, Barack Obama not overwhelmingly won, but still, in areas – for example, where I live, in Roanoke County, which is Republican-dominated, turned blue last night. Everyone’s asking what just happened?

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

So anything turn blue in your neck of the woods, Micah?

MICAH SCHWEIZER:

Yeah, well, the state of Indiana turned blue. It’s been a [LAUGHS] wild and crazy ride for the Hoosier State these last months. And it’s really interesting if you look at what happened in 2004 versus what happened last night.

In 2004, four counties went for John Kerry. Last night, 15 counties went for Barack Obama. So Indiana still a Republican state in many ways, but McCain’s lead in the rural vote was just not strong enough to overcome the two-to-one margin that the voters were picking Obama in Lake County near Chicago, nearly a two-to-one margin in Indianapolis and surrounding Marion County. Those margins were just too much for McCain to overcome with the rural vote.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Andrea Bernstein, our Takeaway Political Director, is also here. These are amazing results statewide, wouldn’t you say?

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

Yeah. I think that they’re symbolic of the coalition that Barack Obama managed to put together as well as the changing demographics of the state.

I mean, there are areas around Indianapolis where there are lots of people moving in from the coasts, and ? because there’s health care industry, there’s pharmaceutical, there’s insurance, so you have new people moving in.

You have African-Americans. You have sort of the urban I-wonder-if-they’ll-still-be-called-elites, as well as people – blue-collar, unionized, in counties where WNIN is. Vanderburgh County, that went blue, went Obama. They had voted for Bush, they voted for Clinton, so they actually sort of moved over back into the Democratic column.

And the same thing in Virginia. The area right around Washington, D.C., again, new growth. Latinos, African-Americans, younger people, sort of intellectual elites. It’s the sort of Democratic Party coalition that Barack Obama put together to win this election, and very effectively took advantage of the changing demographics of these states.

ADAORA UDOJI:

Tommie, in Virginia, did Barack Obama ride Warner’s coattails or was it the other way around? Or was there just this ground-swelling of the changing demographics there that were trending towards Democrats?

TOMMIE McNEILL:

I think the ground-swelling was taking place, but also ? and Governor Tim Kaine made an excellent point last night. Barack Obama since June has made 11 ? at least 11 – stops in Virginia. Most candidates would just bypass Virginia, give it up, but he made 11 stops through Virginia, and, again, Republican-controlled areas.

You have to look at the fact that Mark Warner, who is a very, very ? who was a very popular governor, won the Senate race overwhelmingly and beat his predecessor again overwhelmingly.

I believe that the momentum continued with Barack Obama by riding Mark Warner’s coattails.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

You know, Tommie, I used to live down there in Fauquier County, which is about an hour away from Washington, D.C., and you used to say that Fauquier was Klan country back in the 1980s.

But with the growth out there and the enormous sort of development in the kind of bedroom community of Washington, D.C., are even places like that becoming examples of what Andrea was talking about, this changing demographic, this sort of new America moving into rural Virginia?

TOMMIE McNEILL:

Absolutely. I mean, there’s, as you said, there’s a lot of growth in those areas. We were looking at the map last night, the Virginia map, at the areas that were blue and the areas ? and if you looked at the state as a whole, it stayed red. But those areas where there’s the most growth in Virginia were the areas where Barack Obama was.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Wow.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

Look at, I mean, Prince William County, one of our Counties that Count. A hundred thousand more people live there today than lived there when Bush was elected in 2000. I mean, that is –

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Oh, even eight years ago, wow, wow.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

– enormous, enormous growth. And, you know, and the Obama campaign, I mean, you know, the 11 visits ? I mean, they said right from the end of the primary, we are going for the sales [?]. We are going for surprising states ? North Carolina, Georgia they mentioned. And not only did they win Virginia but here they are holding onto –

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Right.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

– a tiny lead in North Carolina. And Georgia, as of right this minute, the AP called it and then uncalled it. So even though –

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Right.

ANDREA BERNSTEIN:

– most everybody has called Georgia for McCain, there’s still a question mark around it. It tells you where we have come in these many months.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

And Indiana, a huge surprise. Micah, what’s the new growth there and how is that manifesting itself in the blue changes that you already talked about?

MICAH SCHWEIZER:

Well, sure, a lot of the new growth is just in terms of the voter rolls. We had 800,000 new voters on the books for this election, and so that’s got to be a big factor.

It’s interesting looking at Indiana, that it’s still ? if you look overall, it still looks pretty red. But we look at the urban areas, in this sense it’s sort of like Pennsylvania, where you see red in the middle and then Pittsburgh and Philadelphia looking blue.

So it really was the urban vote that tipped it to Obama, coupled with the relative weakness of McCain’s rural vote. And it’s the urban areas, of course, that are drawing in the new people ? like Andrea was saying, people coming into Indianapolis to work in health care fields, in the biotech fields and pharmaceutical and so forth. Also growth in Evansville in similar fields.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Sure. Very quickly, Micah, are you saying that this might be a transitory phenomenon in Indiana? Yes or no?

MICAH SCHWEIZER:

Boy, it’s tough to say whether this’ll stick over the long term.

[OVERTALK]

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Tommie, Tommie, what do you think? Is this a big shift or maybe transitory? Quickly.

TOMMIE McNEILL:

This is huge.

JOHN HOCKENBERRY:

Huge. Our Micah Schweizer, reporter for Public Radio WNIN in Evansville, India, and Tommie McNeill, political reporter for Virginia Public Radio. Thanks to both of you. Virginia and Indiana, [LAUGHING] states that count.