Republicans Losing Grip on Rural Areas?

Having recently posted about the Democratic Party "Crash" in Los Angeles, I think it's only fair to note an interesting diary posted on the Daily Kos about Republicans in trouble in rural America.

Republicans Losing Grip on Rural Areas
by Devilstower

The non-partisan Center for Rural Strategies was founded to try and keep rural issues visible in elections that sometimes seem to focus only in the cities that host $2000 a plate dinners and 50,000 person stadiums. Since the Kentucky-based group was founded, one thing has been consistently true in the results of their polls of rural voters -- America's small towns and countryside have been running red. However, it seems that may be at an end.

But the new survey, of 804 likely voters living beyond cities and suburbs, indicates that the Republican formula for winning presidential elections is losing a key component.
...

Forty-six percent of the survey respondents indicated they'd vote for an un-named Democratic candidate for president if the election were held today; 43 percent favored a Republican. That's a statistical dead heat, given the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percent.

California is one of those states where wingnut Republicans take a large rural vote completely for granted. The diarist at the Daily Kos, of course, only thinks in terms of "Blue" Democrats vs. "Red" Republicans. For California there are earth-shaking implications for the Green Party particularly when it comes to explosive issues like water-rights.

Stay tuned.