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PENNSYLVANIA: ZELL! & BLUE-DOG KEYSTONERS [Chris Lilik 10/20 12:41 PM]

Yesterday in Westmoreland County, every conservative's favorite Democrat, Senator Zell Miller, was out campaigning for the President in front of a crowd of 150.

While SEPA (Philly and its suburban counties) is generally starting to trend Democrat (thanks for socially liberal registered Republicans who vote Democrat) the opposite is happening out in SWPA (Pittsburgh and its suburban counties).

Case in point: Westmoreland County.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Westmoreland is a county heavily dominated by Democrats in municipal offices, as well. Its board of commissioners has a Democratic majority; its state House delegation is overwhelmingly Democratic....

Belying its registration statistics and political character at the local level, Westmoreland County over the last 15 years has become an increasingly reliable source of votes for Republican candidates. And reliance on that trend was one of the foundations of an aggressive GOP-controlled redistricting plan that dramatically reshaped the state's congressional map two years ago.

What this reflects is a drift of socially conservative voters away from the Democratic Party that presents a key challenge to Kerry and other Democratic candidates....

The issues of abortion and gun control are repeatedly cited by Republican and Democrats as among the keys to the GOP inroads in counties like Westmoreland across the western half of Pennsylvania.

With conservative Democrats expected to give Bush a win in western counties like 2-1 Democrat-heavy Westmoreland County, the national chairman of Democrats for Bush certainly picked the right spot to stump.