*Editor’s note: This
is part two in a series that will break down the demographic statistics of
voters in all six of FPP’S designated swing states plus the states of
Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wisconsin. Tomorrow
Iowa and New Hampshire
A
Republican hasn’t won Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes since Richard Nixon swept
49 states away from George McGovern in 1972. In what has been a solid Democratic
state in the last nine presidential elections, recent polling has Mitt Romney siting
just outside the margin of error and within striking distance with less than
one week until Election Day. The Obama
campaign sent super surrogate and former President Bill Clinton to Minneapolis
yesterday where he held two events trying to stop the bleeding. In 2008, Barack
Obama defeated John McCain by 10%. Let’s take a closer look at the demographic
make-up of the Land of 10,000 Lakes.
Population
Population:
5,303,925 (2010)
State
rank: 21st
Change
since 2000 census: up 7.8%
Most populated
cities
Minneapolis
382,578
St.
Paul 285,068
Rochester
106,769
Duluth
86,265
Household Income
Under
$15K: 10.6%
$15K-$50K:
33.3%
$50K-$100K:
34.5%
$100K-$200K:
17.6%
Over
$200K: 4.0%
Median
Income: $56,704
Read
more after the jump
 |
Courtesy: NASA
|
Contributed
By: William Snyder; Co-Founder Fourth Party Politics
The term October Surprise has garnered a whole new meaning in the wrath of Hurricane Sandy. Sandy has devastated people along the eastern seaboard and knocked out power to over 8.5 million homes from North Carolina to Maine and as far west as Michigan. The Presidential campaign has temporarily been put on pause with just one week remaining until Americans cast their ballots to decide the next leader of the free world.
It remains to be seen how Sandy will effect next Tuesday’s election especially in down ballet races in coastal communities in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. Will the candidates be able to return to battleground Virginia, where its 13 electoral votes could decide next week’s election, or is the campaigning in Virginia now going to be decided by each campaigns ground game? New questions arise out of a natural disaster in the middle of a hotly contested Presidential election. How do the candidates continue to campaign amidst a disaster? With the death toll now at 50 and expected to rise in the coming days, how will people view politicians courting votes in Ohio and the Midwest while 50 million plus people continue to feel to effects this historic perfect storm?
Tomorrow Gov. Romney is expected to go back to the campaign trail while President Obama will continue to play the role of President and tour the devastation in New Jersey with Gov. Chris Christie. It is expected that the earliest President Obama will regain his campaign schedule is on Thursday. Until then, Former President Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden will be darting across the country making the closing arguments for the Obama campaign in a race that is now simply too close to call.
Update: 11:11 P.M. Hurricane Sandy Death toll mounts to 12
Update: 10:21 P.M. Reports of Trading floor of New York Stock Exchange under water confirmed to be FALSE. CNN retracts earlier statement claims twitter was to blame.
Update: 9:56 P.M. CNN is reporting three feet of standing water on the floor of the NYSE.
BREAKING NEWS: Romney Camp temporarily suspends active campaigning in wake of Hurricane Sandy. The campaign has cleared its complete public schedule for both Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan through at least Tuesday. The President announced early this morning that he was canceling a scheduled stop to the Orlando area this morning and returning back to the White House to help manage the crisis. Former President Bill Clinton was supposed to join Mr. Obama at the Orlando Stop.
