Wisconsin’s $4.1B Foxconn factory boondoggle

Re:Wisconsin’s $4.1B Foxconn factory boondoggle by zekevermillion on Monday October 29, 2018 @01:55PM (#18329547)

There is a confluence of political and economic factors at play, I suspect. Yes there are siting logistics, water supply, electric, labor pool, etc. But also: You don't go to Madison or to downtown Milwaukee to find potential Republican voters.

The vast majority of Republican voters in WI live in a ring of suburban counties surrounding Milwaukee. Yes, some rural counties are also red, but the absolute numbers of voters there is tiny. Go to suburban MKE, you hit a sweet spot of attractive economics for FC and possible political impact for state Repubs.

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Re:Wisconsin’s $4.1B Foxconn factory boondoggle by tfehring on Monday October 29, 2018 @03:53PM (#18330739)

Southeastern Wisconsin as a whole only has 2.1 million [0] of the state's 5.7 million residents as of 2014. 600k of that is Milwaukee itself.

[0] https://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/population/southeastern.htm

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Re:Wisconsin’s $4.1B Foxconn factory boondoggle by thrmsforbfast on Monday October 29, 2018 @04:58PM (#18331370)

It's not like everything outside of Madison/Milwaukee is deep red. The only deep red counties in Wisconsin are extremely sparse. Kenosha County, for example, is mostly rural but was split almost exactly down the middle on Clinton/Trump (fewer than 300 votes between the two), and that was a rather extraordinary swing to the right for that county

Parent's observation that the WOW counties determine the statewide offices and electoral college vote allocation is absolutely accurate.

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Re:Wisconsin’s $4.1B Foxconn factory boondoggle by tfehring on Monday October 29, 2018 @08:13PM (#18332885)

WOW meaning Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington? Those counties make up a little over 10% of the state's population. I agree that they're important, and I agree that it makes sense to campaign there because they have higher population densities, higher voter turnouts, and more swing voters than the deep red exurban counties. But it's misleading to claim that they include the vast majority of Wisconsin's Republicans, as the GP comment did, or that they're the main factor in election outcomes. In 2016, for example, the 8 percentage point decrease in Milwaukee's turnout rate compared to 2012 was probably a bigger factor.

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Re:Wisconsin’s $4.1B Foxconn factory boondoggle by thrmsforbfast on Monday October 29, 2018 @09:02PM (#18333160)

> But it's misleading to claim that they include the vast majority of Wisconsin's Republicans, as the GP comment did

Oh, I misinterpreted the parent post's comment. Yeah, that's not true.

2016 was strange across the ballot in Wisconsin. Clinton was not a Wisconsin-friendly Democrat. The 2018 and 2020 elections will be interesting to watch. In general, it's a good rule of of thumb that getting things just right in WOW is one path to victory. There are other paths, of course, depressed turnouts being one of them.

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Re:Wisconsin’s $4.1B Foxconn factory boondoggle by uxp100 on Monday October 29, 2018 @05:00PM (#18331390)

I'm kinda confused. The author was wondering why they were having satellite engineering offices at all, when people could just drive to Racine (Driving from Eau Claire to Racine and back is 500 miles, I think the author didn't look up where these places are.)

You seem to be suggesting these locations are a political favor. But one is downtown (not suburban) Milwaukee, and the others are 150+ miles from Milwaukee. Not in that Charlie Sykes listening suburban ring of Milwaukee.

And anyway, the factory itself is near suburban Milwaukee so why would a downtown engineering (sales/business?) be a favor? And I'm not sure, but Racine is probably the least conservative county that touches Milwaukee.

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