An interesting analysis of Pennsylvania’s political geography from the Daily Kos PA-Sen and Gov: Western PA

Actually the full title should be the rest of PA outside Metropolitan Philadelphia. But mostly I’m writing about Western PA. Which is generally important in PA politics and maybe even more so in the Governor’s race in 2010.

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There some small steel cities in the valleys and a few small towns and then there are a lot of rural areas. The valleys flood. Johnstown, in Cambria county would be the most famous example. It didn’t just flood in 1889, it also flooded several other times including 1936. This is the reason for the tax at Pennsylvania state stores. Western PA is still very much an ethnic Catholic area. My mother remembers that after Vatican II, the churches went from Latin to Polish, Croat, Slovak, Romanian and Czech. No one under 50 could understand the mass. The French and Indian war is the major source of historical tourism. Steel and Coal mining used to be big, but not anymore.

Central PA-East of Bedford County to the Susquahanna and Lancaster County has a large concentration both conservatives and Anabaptists (Brethren and Mennonite folk.) Moravians, on the other hand are in the Northeast around Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. The more common names in Lancaster and Dauphin county include Schlosser, Royer, Stoltzfus (or Stoltzfoos), Myer and Hartmann.

Demographically Pennsylvania is full of Seniors with the second oldest population in the country, and Union members. Pennsylvanians join the National Guard and Reserve in higher than average numbers…