Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan will be on Oakland University's campus today, as part of a day-long visit to Oakland County. This will be an opportunity for students to see the candidate in person (a number of tickets were reserved for OU students), and to learn more about the 2012 campaign.
This is an opportunity to talk a bit about Oakland County and its voting patterns over the years. Long known for its high income per household (the county typically was in the top 10 in household income in the U.S.), county voters had tended to support Republicans running for county-based U.S. House seats (anyone remember Bill Broomfield?) and went for Republican presidential candidates.
However, since 1996, a majority of the county's voters have supported Democratic presidential candidates in each election through 2008. Moreover,Democratic U.S. Representative Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township) beat long-time incumbent Republican Joe Knollenberg in 2008, as part of the 2008 "wave" election for Democrats.
This in part has to do with the changing demographics of the county. No longer are we in the top 10 in terms of household income (maybe in the top 25?), and the economic recession has been felt in many county households where at least one of the wage earners worked in the auto industry. Moreover, with the Great Recession, housing values dropped, and as a consequence, a number of families who had lived in Detroit or Wayne County moved into Oakland County communities such as Southfield and Farmington Hills. This has increased the diversity of the county, and made the county more Democratic than it had been before.
With its large and diverse population, the county is key to the capturing of Michigan's Electoral College votes. Since Mitt Romney grew up in Oakland County, I'm sure Paul Ryan will remind voters of this many times while he is visiting here today.
I hope some of you are able to watch Paul Ryan today. This is a great opportunity for young people to be a part of what is one of the most important features of our democracy -- the campaign for U.S. President and Vice President.
John Klemanski
This is an opportunity to talk a bit about Oakland County and its voting patterns over the years. Long known for its high income per household (the county typically was in the top 10 in household income in the U.S.), county voters had tended to support Republicans running for county-based U.S. House seats (anyone remember Bill Broomfield?) and went for Republican presidential candidates.
However, since 1996, a majority of the county's voters have supported Democratic presidential candidates in each election through 2008. Moreover,Democratic U.S. Representative Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Township) beat long-time incumbent Republican Joe Knollenberg in 2008, as part of the 2008 "wave" election for Democrats.
This in part has to do with the changing demographics of the county. No longer are we in the top 10 in terms of household income (maybe in the top 25?), and the economic recession has been felt in many county households where at least one of the wage earners worked in the auto industry. Moreover, with the Great Recession, housing values dropped, and as a consequence, a number of families who had lived in Detroit or Wayne County moved into Oakland County communities such as Southfield and Farmington Hills. This has increased the diversity of the county, and made the county more Democratic than it had been before.
With its large and diverse population, the county is key to the capturing of Michigan's Electoral College votes. Since Mitt Romney grew up in Oakland County, I'm sure Paul Ryan will remind voters of this many times while he is visiting here today.
I hope some of you are able to watch Paul Ryan today. This is a great opportunity for young people to be a part of what is one of the most important features of our democracy -- the campaign for U.S. President and Vice President.
John Klemanski
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