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The richer the neighborhood in north Hillsborough, the more likely it was to vote for Republicans George W. Bush and Victor Crist.
By BILL COATS
© St. Petersburg Times, published November 12, 2000
To judge from the local presidential vote, you would think George W. Bush campaigned at the country clubs, and Al Gore campaigned at the laundromats.
The richer the neighborhood, the stronger Bush's support. The poorer the neighborhood, or the more apartments there, the greater Gore's vote.
Republican Bush won 70 percent of the vote in an affluent precinct serving most of Cheval and Calusa Trace. Next door, at the huge Lake Carlton Arms apartments, he received only 41 percent.
Democrat Gore polled 78 percent in the low-income neighborhoods around University Mall. Up the road in Hunter's Green and West Meadows, he received only 38 percent.
The pattern duplicated results from past elections, and held fast even when the voters' focus shifted from Washington to Tallahassee. Cheval gave Victor Crist, the Republican who won a state Senate seat, one of his strongest boosts, 64 percent. Next door, Lake Carlton Arms was one of Crist's weakest precincts, at 44 percent. (See related chart on page XX)
Votes from apartment dwellers apparently helped Gore carry the precinct behind Gaither High School, something Bill Clinton couldn't do four years ago, when he faced both Bob Dole and Ross Perot.
Ethnicity also may have played a role.
Gore carried a swath of precincts between Linebaugh Avenue and Gunn Highway that contain some of the largest portions of Hispanic voters north of Town 'N Country. Those neighborhoods, particularly precinct 502 along Sheldon Road, also are home to some older, blue-collar areas that tend to support Democrats.
Party support has long split along lines of wealth. Additionally, Republicans consistently run stronger in suburbs than in more urban neighborhoods. Political scientists attribute that to young parents who grow more conservative as they settle in the suburbs to raise children.
- Bill Coats can be reached at (813) 226-3469 or coats@sptimes.com.