The 2012 battle for the ’burbs "With Graphic"
In the past two presidential elections, almost two-thirds of the popular vote came from nation's 100 biggest metro areas. Each of these county clusters begins with a large urban core and extends across suburban counties with strong economic ties. In 2004 and 2008, Republicans won the least-settled suburban counties, while Democrats took the most urban ones. In between, the mature suburbs were a shifting battleground. They went for George W. Bush in 2004, but Barack Obama in 2008. The mature suburbs alone may not decide the 2012 presidential race, but they offer a geographic window on the swing voters who will. Will they stick with Obama? Or shift to presumed Republican nominee Mitt Romney? By Ted Mellnik, Laura Stanton and Karen Yourish
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/2012-election-battlefield-in-mature-suburbs/index.html?tid=sm_twitter_washingtonpost
