Red States vs. Blue States or "Mauve Nation"?
At the national level political commentators usually try to present the country as a mix of “red” states – those almost always voting Republican in presidential elections – and “blue” states – those usually voting Democrat. And the reporting oftentimes creates the impression of a deeply divided nation. In reality there are many more of us somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum, even here in the heart of the Rockies.

In the dichotomous world of reporting and political discourse about red states and blue states, the Rocky Mountain West region is largely viewed as “red.” In electoral college voting in presidential elections where winners take all, all of the electoral votes of the states of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana went into the red column in 2004, same as in 2000. However, curiously enough, three of these five states currently have Democratic governors including Montana (Schweitzer), Wyoming (Freudenthal), and Colorado (Ritter). Two have Republican governors – Idaho (Otter) and Utah (Huntsman).

The map below shows counties in four of these states – Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana - based upon how they voted in recent gubernatorial elections where no incumbent was running. These include the 2006 race in Colorado between Democrat Ritter and Republican Beauprez won by Ritter, 57% to 40%; the 2006 race in Idaho between Republican Otter and Democrat Brady won by Otter, 53% to 44%; the 2004 race in Montana between Democrat Schweitzer and Republican Brown won by Schweitzer, 50% to 46%; and the 2002 race in Wyoming between Democrat Freudenthal and Republican Bebout won by Freudenthal, 50% to 48% (Fredenthal also won more recently in 2006 running as an incumbent). Counties in each state are color-coded to reflect their voting intensity for one or the other candidate and party.

Rather than coloring counties either red or blue based upon which candidate had a simple majority, counties are color-coded in gradations, reflecting the intensity or lopsidedness of voting for one candidate or the other. Counties in dark red voted 60% and more for Republican candidates in each race while counties in dark blue voted 60% and more for Democratic candidates. These can be considered the most intensely politically partisan counties in each of the states. Light red and light blue counties had votes of 55 to 60% for either a Republican or Democratic candidate. These might be thought of as more moderate, but nevertheless still partisan counties. The light purple or “mauve” counties are ones with votes for governor in each of these races falling under a 55% majority for either candidate. Voting is more evenly split between Republican and Democratic candidates.

Across the four states 39 of the total of 187 counties are dark red while 28 are dark blue and 39 are light red as compared to 24 light blue ones. So, the number of red counties greatly exceeds the number of blue ones. But the largest number of counties – 57 in all – fall in the middle category shown in mauve. And if you look at the distribution of the 4-state areas population in 2006 by these county political groupings, shown below, what you find is that the combined population of the 57 mauve counties totaled nearly 2.2 million people (28% of the total in 2006, up from 25% in 1990). But the group with the largest population is the dark blue counties with over 2.2 million people (29% of the total in 2006 as compared to 30% in 1990).

Among the four elections used in this analysis, two were relatively lopsided – Democrat Ritter’s win in Colorado 57% to 40% and Republican Otter’s win in Idaho 53% to 44%. Democrat Schweitzer’s win in Montana was closer (50% to 46%) and Democrat Freudenthal’s 2002 win in Wyoming was much closer (50% to 48%). The charts below focus only on the latter two states – Montana and Wyoming – where the voting was close. In Montana 10 of the counties are dark red and 14 light red, while 5 are dark blue and 6 are light blue. The remaining 21 are mauve. In Wyoming 5 counties are dark red versus only 1 dark blue one and there are 6 each for the light red and light blue categories. The rest (5) are mauve. The chart below shows the vote count in these two states in these governor races by county political groupings.

The largest vote among groupings came from the mauve counties for candidates in both parties. It did not come from their most loyal partisans in the dark red and blue counties for either. This is because most people in both states reside in these mauve counties and more residents in these states also reside in light red counties than dark red ones and more reside in light blue counties than dark blue ones, as shown in the chart below.

Although there are obvious exceptions, most of us live in communities, states and regions where political moderation is the norm. There are fewer of us living in areas that are intensely Republican or Democrat and more of us living in areas where voting is much more closely split between candidates of each party. And for most of us solutions to our common problems have common solutions, grounded in the vast and wide “middle road.” And this is true even here in the Rocky Mountain West.

- Larry Swanson, Director, O’Connor Center for the Rocky Mountain West