• Obama, Carmona up in Arizona, poll reports on changing demography
    posted by Terry Greene Sterling at 13 October, 10:05 PM  0 
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    Two years ago, National Journal writer/editor Ron Brownstein wrote a very smart piece explaining America’s changing demography. It details the the “generational mismatch” between two clashing electorates — old white people and young brown people. In a battle over scant resources, the young people naturally want good schools and solid infrastructure. (I’m with the kids, by the way.)  Old white people want their Medicare and Social Security.  And they don’t necessarily want to spend money on the young.

    We all see the generational mismatch in the 2012 presidential election — Barack Obama represents the young brown and Mitt Romney represents old white.

    I’ve sensed for a long time that this demographic change is sweeping over  Arizona, and recently wrote a piece in The Atlantic  detailing how Arizona is turning purple at the local level and up through the Carmona-Flake senate race.

    But a brand new Rocky Mountain Poll indicates Arizona’s voters clearly reflect the demographic changes in their presidential selection. Obama and Romney are neck-and-neck, the poll says, and Obama leads among likely voters by two points.  And here’s the old-grey-young-brown indicator: Obama overwhelmingly leads among Hispanics and young people, while Romney leads among old people and Caucasians.

    Among likely voters, Rich Carmona leads Jeff Flake in the senate race.


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    Bio: Journalist Terry Greene Sterling has lived in Arizona most of her life, and has reported on the political brawls and human tragedies that have long made Arizona the focus of national news. She was raised on an Arizona cattle ranch, and learned to speak Spanish at the same time she learned English. The author of Illegal, Life and Death in Arizona's Immigration War Zone, Sterling has been honored with more than 50 national and regional journalism awards. She was named Virg Hill Journalist of the Year, Arizona’s highest journalism honor, three times. She was a staff writer for Phoenix New Times for 14 years before branching out on her own. She is a contributor for The Daily Beast, and Writer-in-Residence at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. Her work has also appeared in The Washington Post, Newsweek.com, Salon.com, Rollingstone.com, The Nieman Narrative Digest, Phoenix Magazine, The Arizona Republic, Arizona Highways, High Country News, and Preservation Magazine. She tweets @tgsterling and blogs about immigration in Arizona at terrygreenesterling.com.


    Website: http://www.terrygreenesterling.com/

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