Mitt Romney is literally from Belmont, where he raised his family in a large house and now has a condominium and where he helped build a large Mormon temple visible as you drive by on Route 2. He grew up in another Belmont, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
Rick Santorum, in contrast, describes himself as the grandson of an immigrant coal miner, a product of Fishtown. He often tells of getting his political start winning two House races in the steel mill suburbs of Pittsburgh.
When you look at where these two candidates are drawing their strongest support, you see a similar contrast.
Romney in 2008 and this year has run consistently strongest in the high-income, high-education Belmonts. Santorum has run strongest in areas with more downscale Republican voters.
Both trends are politically problematic. It is not attractive for Republicans (though it can be for Democrats) to advertise a candidate’s appeal to affluent voters.
But it’s also true that there just aren’t so many voters in Fishtown any more; voter turnout there is way down. Pittsburgh is our one major metro area with more deaths than births. There aren’t as many neighborhoods filled with devout Catholics with large families as there were 50 years ago.
Republicans are choosing between a candidate from a Belmont that’s doing just fine and one who claims ties with a Fishtown that isn’t what it used to be. Not an ideal choice.
