Back from a little trip.

[blackeagle603]

I'm guessing you can predict the economic conditions of those "upstate" areas based on whether the State house is controlled by Dems or R's.

No, not guessing. Willing to bet a paycheck on it.

[Greg]

I'm guessing you can predict the economic conditions of those "upstate" areas based on whether the State house is controlled by Dems or R's.

No, not guessing. Willing to bet a paycheck on it.

Not taking that bet.

A (D) controlled dense urban area will either be a red in claw and tooth jungle, or a sheltered rich enclave heavy on New Class membership. Whether those areas are enough, demographically to control the state as a whole does matter.

When you see pockets of suburbia where people do things for a living, as opposed to somehow leverage gov't for a living, they generally have (R) local gov'ts, lower crime, nicer people, etc. But they get squeezed in a blue state, because everyone hates them.

[HTRN]

...And the problem with "Divorcing" NYC is, the tax money collected there is the only thing staving off financial meltdown in the rest of the state(badly I might add). Frankly, the economy in most of the Upstate areas have been in the shitter for 20+ years, with places like Kodak and Cincinati Milacron a shadow of their former selves.

How much of that is a result of tax and regulatory policies from an Albany loaded with NYC area leftists?

CA would be in white hot economic growth if not for the LA and Bay Area vote dominating Sacramento.

Every actual city upstate pushes the same policies (except without the benefit of the Magic Wall Street Money Machine), so it's very hard to say.

What he said. Go look at the 2012 election map. The areas mostly red(Western NY, and Central NY) are the least populated.

[arctictom]

Yup upstate NY is beautiful and very different than the city. Sounds like you had fun.