Hamilton County turns blue? Purple, at least...

Caleb Faux, the Hamilton County Democratic Party's executive director, tossed a graphic up on the party's Web site recently that is most interesting.

It charts Hamilton County's performance in presidential election back to 1960; and it shows clearly that, since Ronald Reagan, the GOP vote in Hamilton County has been steadily declining while the Democratic vote has risen, just as steadily.

There was only one presidential election in those five decades where the Democratic candidate outpolled the Republican in Hamilton County -- 1964, when Lyndon Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater. No surprise there; that election was a rout; even many Hamilton County Republicans of the mid-60s were scared silly by the bellicose Goldwater.

Hamilton County's GOP vote for president peaked in 1972, when Richard Nixon won re-election in a landslide even bigger than Johnson's eight years earlier.

Reagan, of course, stomped Walter Mondale in 1984, here and elsewhere, but the GOP vote in Hamilton County has been heading south ever since -- except for a slight bump upwards in the 2000 George W. Bush-Al Gore contest.

For the past 20 years, Republican leaders in Hamilton County have watched as their most loyal voters have fled the county by the thousands, taking up new addresses in places like Landen, West Chester, and, worst of all for the Ohio GOP, Kentucky.

The last entry in the chart is not of a presidential contest, but of last year's Ohio gubernatorial race. It shows that, last year, Democrats pulled nearly dead even with the GOP in Hamilton County.

Ted Strickland came up only 1,923 votes short of Ken Blackwell out of 287,496 ballots cast. that's a difference of 0.66 percent. And Blackwell, of course, is a Hamilton County Republican.

Faux's take on all this? That next year's presidential election will be the one where the chart lines will cross; and blueness will reign in Hamilton County.

Check out the graph for yourself: http://www.hamiltoncountydems.org,