OC is no Longer Nixonland: NY Times

I saw this page one story in yesterday’s New York Times but couldn’t post becuase I was offsite all day and too tired to doi it last night, but it’s telling when the nation’s newspaper of record devotes a page one story to declining Republican control in the OC.

Of course, readers here know exactly what the Times story says.  The death grip of conservatism is loosening daily here in Orange Coiunty.  Democratic candidates for office are emerging and wining in seats once thought exclusively Republican domain.  Orange County is no longer a “Red County” and there are quite a few pockets of deep Blue liberalism here. 

From the times story: “But this iconic county of 3.1 million people passed something of a milestone in June. The percentage of registered Republican voters dropped to 43 percent, the lowest level in 70 years.

It was the latest sign of the demographic, ethnic and political changes that are transforming the county and challenging long-held views of a region whose colorful — its detractors might suggest zany — reputation extends well beyond the borders of this state.

At the end of 2009, nearly 45 percent of the county’s residents spoke a language other than English at home, according to county officials. Whites now make up only 45 percent of the population; this county is teeming with Hispanics, as well as Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese families. Its percentage of foreign-born residents jumped to 30 percent in 2008 from 6 percent in 1970, and visits to some of its corners can feel like a trip to a foreign land.

The demographic changes that have swept the county reflect what is happening across the state and much of the nation. It has happened slowly but surely over the course of a generation, becoming increasingly apparent not only in a drive through the 34 cities that fill this sprawling 789-square-mile county south of Los Angeles, but also, most recently, in the results of a presidential election. In 2008, Barack Obama drew 48 percent of the vote here against Senator John McCain of Arizona. (By comparison, in 1980, Jimmy Carter received just 23 percent against Ronald Reagan, the conservative hero whose election as California governor in 1966 and 1970 was boosted in no small part by the affection for him here.)”

For the Times photographic slide show on the story, click here.