Interesting statistics....

[HonestChieffan]

http://reaganiterepublicanresistance.blogspot.com/2011/02/ten-poorest-us-cities-and-why.html

% living below the poverty level:

1. Detroit , MI 32.5%
2. Buffalo , NY 29.9%
3. Cincinnati , OH 27.8%
4 Cleveland , OH 27.0%
5. Miami , FL 26.9%
6. St. Louis , MI 26.8%
7. El Paso , TX 26.4%
8. Milwaukee , WI 26.2%
9. Philadelphia , PA 25.1%
10. Newark , NJ 24.2%

What do these top ten cities (pop over 250,000) with the highest poverty rate all have in common...?

Detroit, MI hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961.

Buffalo , NY hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1954.

Cincinnati , OH hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1984.

Cleveland , OH hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1989.

Miami , FL has never had a Republican mayor.

St. Louis , MO hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1949.

El Paso , TX has never had a Republican mayor.

Milwaukee , WI hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1908.

Philadelphia , PA hasn'telected a Republican mayor since 1952.

Newark , NJ hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1907.

[alnorth]

I might excuse Detroit and Miami due to the housing crisis, but all of the 10? Interesting.

[Saul Good]

Big cities generally vote Democrat. Do you have numbers for the other end of the spectrum?

[bowener]

Exactly how many of those cities are considered former manufacturing towns? Seems any place that once had a bustling industry that has since died would face hard times. Could also explain why there have been no rep. mayors if most of the cities had large unions for their industrial laborers.

[HonestChieffan]

Big cities generally vote Democrat. Do you have numbers for the other end of the spectrum?

Nope. Do you?

[Saul Good]

Nope. Do you?

I don't. I know that San Diego and Dallas have Republican mayors. I don't know much about their current economies, though.

[alnorth]

San Diego: 14.3% (2009)
Dallas: 23.2% (2009)

Dallas seems to be a bit close, but San Diego's doing well.

To the extent that republican mayors have any correlation with low poverty rates, I'd guess maybe it would have more to do with driving poor people out to cities where there is easier access to assistance. So, their numbers get padded by poor flight.

[Amnorix]

Not really interesting. Doesn't add much new information to the mix. As Saul noted, nearly all big cities have Democatic mayors.