Can Democrats Redraw the Electoral Map?
By Rhodes Cook A whole generation of young Americans may be growing up with the impression that the nation’s electoral map is locked into a rough balance between the Democrats and Republicans, with their states sharply etched in shades of blue and red. It is an understandable impression. After months of campaigning and the expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars, only three small states shifted sides from the razor close presidential election of 2000 to the high-stakes shootout of 2004. Iowa and New Mexico moved to the Republicans; New Hampshire switched to the Democrats–a trio that together offered a paltry 16 electoral votes. It was the smallest movement of states from one presidential election to another in almost a century. But the dramatic success of the Democrats in 2006 may be a harbinger that our familiar red and blue shadings are poised for a perceptible rearrangement in 2008. For not only did the Democrats run well in the party’s strongholds on the two coasts and the
