Wisconsin Union Protests - #2663 - John Fund: What's At Stake in Wisconsin Budget Battle - Wall Street Journal (2) State of the States: Number of Solidly Democratic States Cut in Half from 2008 - 2010 - Gallup (3) Heavily Democratic States Cut in Half Since 2008 - Gallup - Hot Air

This week President Obama was roundly criticized, even by many of his allies, for submitting a federal budget that actually increases our already crushing deficit. But that didn't stop him Thursday from jumping into Wisconsin's titanic budget battle. He accused the new Republican governor, Scott Walker, of launching an "assault" on unions with his emergency legislation aimed at cutting the state budget. The real assault this week was led by Organizing for America, the successor to President's Obama's 2008 campaign organization. It helped fill buses of protesters who flooded the state capital of Madison and ran 15 phone banks urging people to call state legislators. Mr. Walker's proposals are hardly revolutionary. Facing a $137 million budget deficit, he has decided to try to avoid laying off 5,500 state workers by proposing that they contribute 5.8% of their income towards their pensions and 12.6% towards health insurance. Read more.......  Article contributed by Steve Peters.


State of the States: Number of Solidly Democratic States Cut in Half from 2008 - 2010 -  Gallup - 

Maryland, Massachusetts, Vermont, D.C. most Democratic; Wyoming, Utah most Republican -    Gallup's analysis of party affiliation in the U.S. states shows a marked decline in the number of solidly Democratic states from 2008 (30) to 2010 (14). The number of politically competitive states increased over the same period, from 10 to 18, with more limited growth in the number of leaning or solidly Republican states.

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Heavily Democratic States Cut in Half Since 2008 - Hot Air - Hope and Change has struck the Democratic Party in a big — and unexpected — way. Gallup analyzes its poll data from 2010 on party affiliation to look at the shift in each state, and the news is almost uniformly bad for Democrats. Almost every state has had a decrease in voter affiliation for Democrats, most of those significant, and the number of solidly-blue states has been cut in half:  Gallup’s analysis of party affiliation in the U.S. states shows a marked decline in the number of solidly Democratic states from 2008 (30) to 2010 (14). The number of politically competitive states increased over the same period, from 10 to 18, with more limited growth in the number of leaning or solidly Republican states. …  Read more.......  Article contributed by Steve Peters, and he feels this is a better explanation of the above Gallup numbers.