Kaine won 10 of 12 independent cities in Western VA

[carolinayellowdog]

Something that tends to get lost in discussions of regional red/blue polarity in Virginia is the independent cities. Although in the western part of the state the counties went overwhelmingly for Kilgore, the opposite was the case with our independent cities. (For any non-Virginians reading this, we are the only state in which even small cities can be-- and usually are-- politically independent of the counties in which they are located.)

As a new resident of Danville, I was pleased that the city supported Kaine by a margin of 53/46. Lynchburg tends to be a bellwether, and it was in this case going 51/47 for Kaine. Roanoke is reliably blue, with a margin this time for Kaine of 62/36. But some of the smaller independent cities were surprising. Here are the margins:
Lexington, 65/33; Martinsville, 62/36; Radford, 54/43; Galax, 50/47; Staunton, 50/46; Bedford, 49/48. The only two carried by Kaine were Salem, 50/47 and Bristol (where Kilgore is a local) 62/38.

So don't write us off in the western half as a sea of red!

[carolinayellowdog]

1. Too late to edit. Insert "not" in next to last sentence

The only two NOT carried by Kaine were...