West Virginia: Blue, But with an Asterisk

Gallup Poll Daily surveyed more than 350,000 U.S. adults last year, including at least 1,000 West Virginians, while seeking to measure partisanship in the states.

It found that those who identified themselves as at least leaning Democratic in the Mountain State held a 19 percentage point margin over those identified as leaning Republican.

Voter registration shows a gap of 26.5 percent between Democrats and Republicans. The poll notes that "this measure adds partisan-leaning independents to the percentage who identify with either of the parties."

The results for West Virginia put it among 29 states and Washington, D.C., that "had Democratic party affiliation advantages of 10 points or greater last year... In contrast, only five states had solid or leaning Republican orientations in 2008, with Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Alaska in the former group, and Nebraska in the latter."

But the poll found nine states and DC with larger Democratic margins than West Virginia, and three others at 19 percent. It also noted that West Virginia led a pack of four "solid" Democratic states that went for Republican John McCain in November.

The main implication of the poll results, according to Gallup: "As recently as 2002, a majority of states were Republican in orientation," but "the political landscape of the United States has clearly shifted in the Democratic direction.

"With Democratic support at the national level the highest in more than two decades and growing each of the last five years, Republican prospects for significant gains in power in the near term do not appear great," Gallup concludes. "But the recent data do show that party support can change rather dramatically in a relatively short period of time."