 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
VOTERS'
THOUGHTS ON ...Katie Carr, 27, moved to Columbia six months ago from Brooklyn, N.Y. A Seattle native, her job as an academic rare books librarian took her from one coast of the country to the other before she settled in Columbia.
She’s looking forward to the 2008 elections.
“It’s exciting to vote in a swing state where my vote will matter,” she said during a mid-January meeting of the Columbia-Boone County League of Women Voters.
Indeed, Missouri has been called a bellwether state during past presidential elections. In an article on “Bellwether Politics in Missouri,” Dave Robertson, a political science professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, explained what has made Missouri a consistent indicator of national trends:
“Missouri is a relentlessly average state,” Robertson said in an interview.
He noted Missouri’s central location and demographics that are representative of the nation except for its Latino population.
The state has a diverse economy with interests in agriculture, high tech, industry and health care.Politically, the Show-Me State is middle of the road with a conservative bent on social issues, Roberton said. The influence of Democrats in the state, he noted, is concentrated in St. Louis County, Jackson County in the Kansas City metro area and Boone County.
Since 1900, Robertson said, Missouri has voted for the winner in 25 of 26 presidential elections and narrowly missed in 1956 when Dwight Eisenhower defeated Adlai Stevenson.
Rachel Brekhus, 36, of Columbia remains skeptical of the bellwether title.
“They say that Missouri is a bellwether state, but it’s more of a weather vane,” said Brekhus, first vice president of the League of Women Voters. In Missouri, she said, “we put our finger up in the air and wait to see how things turn out.”
There’s a distinction between being a trend setter and a trend indicator, Robertson said. He agreed that “weather vane” is a more apt description. Unlike California, he said, Missouri does not have the size or influence to be an early trend setter.
— Phou Sengsavanh