Kerry keeps 12-point lead over Bush in California. Bay Area provides...

[Zinfandel]

challenger with strongest support... :bounce:

California voters favor Sen. John Kerry over President Bush by a 12- percentage-point margin, a lead that has remained steady since Kerry emerged as the presumptive Democratic nominee in February, according to a Field Poll released today. :kick:

<snip>

"If you remove the Bay Area from California, it would be pretty much a dead heat,'' DiCamillo said, observing that Bay Area residents sometimes live in a political bubble. :hi:

"Everywhere I go, people ask me in disbelief why Kerry is not leading (by more) in the election,'' DiCamillo said. "I tell them: You live in the Bay Area.'' :party:

<snip>

California, which has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since George H.W. Bush in 1988, remains far more pro-Kerry than the rest of the country. A nationwide poll released Thursday by Fox News showed Kerry ahead of Bush among likely voters 48 percent to 43 percent. The survey of 775 voters had a statistical margin of error of 4 percentage points. A smaller sample of registered voters in 15 "battleground'' states showed Bush and Kerry in a statistical dead heat. :shrug:

<snip>

Bush is scheduled to be in Santa Monica :puke: -- a Democratic bastion -- for a fund-raiser next Friday, according to documents circulated by the campaign. It will be Bush's first visit to the state since March, and anti-war groups are pledging to protest the visit already.

<snip>

Polls gauging the candidate's strengths will be critical in determining strategy for the final three months of the campaign. Reflecting California's position as a state not viewed as a battleground, the group of musicians -- :headbang: including Bruce Springsteen --who announced a tour Wednesday of 34 cities to drum up support for Kerry will come closest to the state on Oct. 5, when Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne and Keb' Mo' play a concert -- in Kansas City, Mo. :smoke:


http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/08/06/BAGT383NU21.DTL

On Edit: Last paragraph

[cally]

1. I wish I understood why the Bay Area became so democratic

I've lived here almost my entire life and I still don't understand. I wish I did so that we could help other places. I live in Marin County and my take is that it's women and environmental issues. We used to have strong Republican environmentalists but as the Repub party changed to anti-women and protecting the environment the Bay Area abandoned the party. I also think the anti-gay stance hurt in this community. Folks are pretty tolerant here.

[Zinfandel]

2. I lived my entire life in N Ca.

Born & raised in San Francisco, I now live in Humboldt County (and I still go to the city at least once a month).

The Bay Area of course is an extension of San Francisco, I always felt as I was growing up, free and politically aware, I never understood the up-tightness of the rest of the country, from watching TV and reading print media, which is what all there was back then...

I think it's all evolved and SF has always been (and still is) a strong Union town, that's spead all across the Bay Area and the North Coast...SF has always had some degree of tolerance, since the Spanish settlers illegally traded with the Russian settlers across the SF Bay, and to the 49ers and Bowery days in SF, to the beats in the fifties, to the anti-war movement at SF State (and Berkeley) in the 60's---the music, the arts, the influx of people who givin up and came here to SF for a bit more freedom, the huge. mostly poor black population in Oakland, needed some militancy,(Black Panthers) citizen's being oppressed by the state and the local police. The laid backness of Marin and the huge working class growth of the South Bay...has helped evolve the Bay Area it's own shelted "bubble".

The beauty of San Francisco itself (and the Bay Area that feeds off of it) promotes a mellowness, tolerance, a feeling almost as an island onto itself, the Pacific Ocean, the mildness of it all...

I mean, Hawaii is probably more liberal than California...and Oregon is getting a huge native Bay Area migration and it's evolving more liberal, very fast, and so is Washington, only a bit slower...

When I just turned eighteen and voted for McGovern in 72...I never looked back and I now live in THE "liberal bastion" of the beautiful redwood coast, and the six rivers of Humboldt County!!!

[cally]

4. Maybe some of it is due to lack of long term family ties

It's different now but when I grew up few had extended family here. (I do and did) Maybe we were allowed to make our own political decisions.

I'm a fourth generation Californian for what it's worth. I'm the first Dem generation. I'm still amazed that my parents are Repub. I think it has much to do with working in the Defense industry during the birth of the computer revolution.

[Zinfandel]

3. I think Kerry shouldn't waste any time or money in California...

Gore didn't spend a dime in CA and won the state by eleven points!

[ronnykmarshall]

5. I agree.

As much as I want to see Kerry or Edwards in person, they've got California locked up.

[NoBorders]

6. was it liberal before the 'counter culture/antiware' movement?

which took off here in the 60's? I could ask my parents, but I'm at work.