Freedom Line Blog

For those wanting to impress others at your election returns party tonight (and if you’re reading this blog, you’ve at least thought about it), here’s the link to the New York Conservative Party website.

And below is a link to short video description of its history by the incomparable Rick Brookhiser of National Review:

Rick Brookhiser on the New York Conservative Party

Don’t be upstaged by that know-it-all acquaintance who can quote Michael Barone’s “Almanac of American Politics” from memory.  You’ll be able to counter with factoids like this:

The 1994 elections were a breakthrough for the Conservative Party as we provided the margin of victory for Governor George E. Pataki with the 326,605 votes cast on our line.  Attorney General Vacco nosed out radical Karen Burstein by 88,340 votes.  He received 305,961 votes on the Conservative Line.  In 1998, 348,272 votes for Governor George E. Pataki were cast on the Conservative line, almost 20,000 more than in 1994, an anomaly in political history.”

Enjoy!

The Almanac of American Politics arrived at our offices today, and with it, a handy little chart on page 1699.

The typical refrain is that the GOP is the party of big-money country club types and Democrats are the party of the little-guy.  As stereotpyical as these labels might be, numbers from the 2008 election tell a strange story.

The Almanac broke down the zip codes in the U.S. by total amount of political contributions.  For example, zip code 10021, which resides in the upper-east side in New York City, contributed over $21 million during the 2007-08 cycle.  Of that amount, over 72% went to Democrats.

This was a typical refrain from the chart.  The six most prolific donor zip codes during the last cycle were all from New York City and all gave big money to Democrats, a total of over $44 million.  That’s $44 million from literally a few square miles on Manhattan Island.  Of the 25 most prolific zip codes, only 3 favored Republicans over Democrats.

More proof of the drastic change in certain demographic groups toward the Democratic Party is evidenced in recent election data.  According to the Almanac, President Obama won 52% of the vote for those reporting income over $200,000 in 2008, even though the President promised to raise income taxes for anyone making over $250,000.

To put that figure in perspective, John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic nominee, received only 35% of the vote for individuals reporting over $200,000 in income.  This  18% jump in high-earners and a massive amount of cash from New York City and California helped propel President Obama to the White House.