Danbury & Presidential Politics - 2000 Election

Some of you may be asking why this blog hasn't talked much at all about the 2008 Presidential Election. As you know this is a local blog, and reports on the politics of our city. Though, that doesn't mean that we can't talk about what is likely to be the most competitive, most fascinating presidential elections of all time.

To start I thought I would do a post on how Danbury has voted in the past two presidential elections. You may find the results interesting. The following is from the 2000 election.

In 2000, both parties needed to find a candidate to run for President. On the Republican side, then-Gov. George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain were the front runners. Alan Keyes, who worked under the Reagan administration, was a candidate as well. They were the top three. Bush was the conservative, right-wing candidate, while McCain was the moderate, straight talking candidate. Keyes was the choice if you didn't like them. Before the primary took place in Connecticut, McCain won the New Hampshire Primary, and Bush won the South Carolina Primary. When they came to Connecticut, Danbury Republicans showed their moderate side, as they picked McCain over Bush, but only by nine votes. Here was the run down:

George W. Bush – 902 (46.6%)
John McCain – 911 (47.1%)
Alan Keyes – 98 (5%)
Other – 13 (1%)

The Democratic candidates were basically just two people. They were, sitting Vice President Al Gore, and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley. Gore ran as a more left-centered candidate, while Bradley ran as a much more liberal candidate. It has been said that Bradley may have done better if the media focused more on him. He and McCain were the underdogs, but because of McCain's big upset in New Hampshire, the media began to love him. Here in Danbury, Democrats decided, by a little less than 400 votes, to stick with the guy they new more, and the one who they trusted to be their Vice President for the past eight years. Here was how they voted:

Al Gore – 1411 (54%)
Bill Bradley – 1040 (40%)
Uncommitted – 138 (6%)

As the general election approached, it was a hard fought battle. Something that some find interesting is that neither Bush or Gore picked their rivals as their running mates (something Kerry did in '04). Bush picked Cheney, and Gore picked our Senator, Joe Lieberman. They both wanted to attract moderate voters. As we all know, Bush ended up winning based on the Supreme Court's decision to stop the recount in Florida, giving him the Presidency. As a whole, Connecticut gave its (at that time) eight electoral votes to Gore. He received fifty-six percent of the vote compared to thirty-nine percent for Bush. Voters from Danbury did almost the exact same thing. Here is how they voted:

Bush - 9,371 (40%)
Gore - 12,987 (55%)
Minor – 1199 (5%)

What does this all mean though? Well, you can see that the Republicans of our city are very moderate, and are your typical New England Republicans because they did go for McCain. The Democrats did give a solid showing towards Bill Bradley, but they were traditional, and went with the next person in line - Gore. We showed our Democratic streak come through when we look at the general election results as we gave much support to Gore. Now Danbury has become a little more Republican than it once was ever since the 2003 election. We will see that in the 2004 results when Danbury was much more favorable to Bush. Of course this part of Connecticut is the most Republican.

You may jump to your own conclusions. Part Two of this will be the 2004 election which will be posted soon. What are your thoughts?