Gwinnett County Rapidly Changing (suburbs, offices, area)

[brettk]

In case we didn't know this already.

Polls show that McCain won just 53% in Gwinnett county, Bush carried it with 66%. McCain underperformed Bush's numbers by about 5 points as a state, but a 13 point change is pretty telling on where the county is heading.

All the county offices are still Republican. I don't think Dems even ran a candidate in most races, but 2012 will be very interesting.

[netdragon]

Both Cobb County (mostly South Cobb) and Gwinnett County are becoming more diverse and cosmopolitan. Cobb is still very republican though, compared to Gwinnett. However, I imagine that was mostly North, West and East Cobb and not South Cobb.

[neil0311]

Clinton won Georgia in 1992, with Wyche Fowler getting more popular vote in the general election before being defeated in the runoff. Fast forward 2 years and Georgia was solidly Republican in the 1994 election, with Dole winning Georgia two years later in 1996 over Clinton.

I don't think you can generalize or trend over just one election. Most of Georgia is still solidly Republican at the state level, and although some of the suburbs are not as deeply Republican as they were, a lot depends on specific candidates and issues. This election had the race factor for many voters, as well as a general desire for "change" which manifests itself as voting for the party not in power. On the Congressional side, the Republican Congressional incumbents from Gwinnett and Cobb won overwhelming re-election by huge margins.

[mmenomen]

Redrawing the districts based on the census changes and what the politicos want to do (gerrymandering for their own sakes) kind of messes up a good number of predictions as well for Gwinnett or any other area of Georgia for that matter.