People from Ohio are invading the South: Retiring &Starting Big Ten Clubs!

[KoKo]

We vacationed in SC for many years and shared a family owned property on one of the Resort Islands. It soon came to our attention that we had an Ohio Invasion! The Island Newsletter had so many posts for groups who were buying on the Island from Ohio and the rest of the Midwest, but Ohio being the most prominent. Then we started hearing about "Big Ten" Clubs on this little Southern Island where Clemson and U. of SC were really the "teams of choice" for the developers and the Locals.

Then when I started to notice how these retirees were voting after they were "full time residents" of SC, it seemed they voted Repub. And, this Island had a huge proportion of Military Retirees but also a famous Gold Medal Figure Skater who bought beach front property for 4 Million, and the "head guy at GE" who is member of private club and flies in on his private jet who owns another Millions of dollars McMansion.

All over the South Reitrees are coming (hugely from Midwest) but now from other parts of the East Coast and elsewhere, buying up beachfront properthy in Private Gated and otherwise communities and forming their own groups alienated from the local populations. Most of them seem to be voting Repug. Big Money, and Retired Military. There are small pockets of some Dem transplants, but for the most part it's Repug voters.

So, I'm wondering if most of the retirees to the Southern Parts of the Us are more to blame for the Repug Dominance, since the really poor mill workers and farmers have been put out of work by jobs going overseas and Agribusiness, and they are so sick of it all they don't even bother to vote. But, the folks from "ELSEWHERE" go to the polls and vote Repug to keep their McMansions and otherwise and don't wan't anyone bothering them about their golf courses and the maintenance, and the pesticides and the regulation that might make them pay more for their privileges of retiring in the "paradise" of their choice?

And, many of these folks I've met, are pretty conservative and would fit right in with the Bushies.

Something to think about when we "write off the South, or trash the South as being full of "Dixiecrats and Racists."

[Noordam]

1. Well

Tampa got alot of midwest retirees and is Repug heavy, but West Palm is mainly NJ/NY and Dem......

Something to think about.

[NoMoreRedInk]

2. Michigan sends a bunch down here as well....

Everybody I know in SC who has ever sold a house or vacation home prays for a "Yankee coming South", because they'll overpay for real estate everytime.

[childslibrarian]

3. They go to NC and SC

I know several Ohioans living in North Carolina. They are conservative, but they don't always vote Republican... I would say they are Independents...

[mlawson]

5. The Midwesterners who have moved here

to Asheville, so far as I know, vote Dem. We had a city council election yesterday, and no repukes even bothered to run. :-)

[ShaneGR]

4. As an Ohio Democrat, I can only say....

Good riddance... they can have as many Repugs as they want.

[KoKo]

8. ROFL, sgr2! You are sending them our way! May you vote in Peace!

Too funny! :D

[AP]

6. I read that 1,000 former union members move to FL and AZ and NM a day

or something like that (it was in a NYT article).

It's a problem for Republicans, not Democrats.

[QC]

7. The New Carpetbaggers

In the town where I go to college, affluent part-time residents, principally retirees seeking to escape ugly winters, have driven property prices up so high that working people can no longer live in there. Historic houses are being torn down to build McMansions and ostentatious condos. Local institutions are being replaced with cheezy chain outfits. The sudden influx of population has made what used to be a quiet, slow place quite crowded now, with terrible traffic and a good bit of noise.

And yes, these people tend to vote conservative and to oppose school taxes, since their own children are far too old to need them.