The Gallup Organization published "the first in a four-part series on the State of the States to be released this week on Gallup.com. The series examines state-by-state differences in party affiliation, religiosity, consumer confidence, and employer hiring and letting go, based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking data collected throughout 2008."
The Findings:
"The accompanying map shows party strength by state for 2008, ranging from states that can be considered solidly Democratic (a Democratic advantage in party identification of 10 percentage points or more) to those that can be considered solidly Republican (a Republican advantage in party identification of 10 percentage points or more). States in which the partisan advantage is less than 5 points in either direction are considered "competitive."
Click on the map to see a clearer version--but yes, that's our lovely state of TEXAS shaded grey, for COMPETITIVE.
From the article: "....only five states had solid or leaning Republican orientations in 2008, with Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska in the former group, and Nebraska in the latter......The most balanced political states in 2008 were Texas (+2 Democratic), South Dakota (+1), Mississippi (+1), North Dakota (+1), South Carolina (even), Arizona (even), Alabama (+1 Republican), and Kansas (+2 Republican)."
Gallup's interview results, for the state of Texas only:
%Dem or Lean Dem: 43.4What does this mean for us in Denton County? It means that we have to tune out the 'naysayers' who claim that Texas will never turn blue. Those views are espoused by conservatives who have a lot of corruption and anti-middle-class policies to protect. Ignore them, and let's keep doing what we're doing.
% Rep or Lean Rep: 41.0
% Gap in Dem or Repub: 2 percentage points
Number of Interviews Conducted in State: 19,415
