Older, Close-In Suburbs Could Make Difference In Mid-Term Elections

"After years in which Republicans capitalized on rapid growth in outlying areas, Democrats now see an opportunity to make gains in close-in suburbs where changes in the composition of the population are working in their favor. In a dozen or so Congressional districts that are leading battlegrounds in the midterm elections, older, more densely packed suburbs are trending Democratic, helping to offset Republican dominance on the sprawling exurban frontier."

Case in point -- Bellevue, WA: "a city of 107,000 just across Lake Washington from Seattle. Here, a fast-growing Asian population and an influx of empty-nesters and singles living in new residential complexes have helped to make this the kind of district that, while continuing to send a Republican to Congress, has turned increasingly Democratic."

"'The future of both parties is in the suburbs,' said Representative Rahm Emanuel(D) of Illinois, who was in Bellevue on behalf of Darcy Burner (D), a 35-year-old former Microsoft employee new to politics, challenging Representative Dave Reichert, a third-term Republican whose district voted Democratic in the 2004 presidential race."

"At the core of the political calculation is a demographic reality: older, more thickly populated inner suburbs, far from being static and homogeneous, are attracting residents of a type that never lived there in large numbers before."