The Keatons Revisited

Yes, sorry, I am obsessed with the U.S. mid-term elections and suffused with nagging fears that vice will be rewarded (Tradesports says differently, but Tradesports can be wrong too). But instead of making pessimistic predictions, I want to revisit something I wrote two years ago in explaining why Ohio was a Republican state. Noting that Family Ties took place in Columbus, I did my own poll of the Keatons and came up with this:

Stephen: Democrats
Elyse: Democrats
Alex: Republicans
Mallory: Didn't want to vote, but she decided to go to the polls to meet a cute guy, and while she was there, she voted Republican because they were promising to lift restrictions on imports of foreign makeup
Jennifer: Democrats
Andrew (who would by now be old enough to vote): Republicans

That makes it a 3-3 split. Who cast the tiebreaking vote? NICK. He went Republican at the last minute because Laura Bush said something nice about his art. When Stephen finds out, he chases Nick around the state with a baseball bat with a nail in it.

And Skippy? Skippy's vote wasn't counted. As if you had any doubt.

But this year, Ohio is widely favored to go in a different direction, with both the Governor's and Senator's races heavily Tradesported to go Democratic. If this turns out to happen, what changed? Whose votes changed?

Well, obviously, Stephen and Elyse stayed the same. I think Jennifer would stay the same too. Andrew would continue voting Republican because, well, he's Andrew and I've always thought he would wind up to the right of Alex. Mallory could go either way depending on which candidate she thought was cuter; she's what we call a "swing voter." And Nick, another swing voter, could also go either way depending on what he was on at the time. Finally, as you know, Alex is a Democrat now.

And Skippy? There's still not a single county around that would count Skippy's vote.