A nationally-recognized Missouri political scientist says Missouri could see an erosion of its reputation as a Presidential bellwether state next Tuesday. University of Missouri-St. Louis professor David Robertson is often called upon for expertise by C-SPAN. He says the Missouri political climate is changing, and our record of picking the right President 25 out of the last 26 times might not last much longer. Three reasons:

–The Latino population, he says, is growing and Missouri is not representative of those voters, meaning Missouri’s results this year might differ more from the national results than many other states will.

—He says African American vote is strongly organized and concentrated in the big cities.

—But he says the young people are a key—-that 40 percent of the hundreds of thousands of newly-registered voters are 18-24.

Robertson says Missouri appears to be moving toward the Democratic side….One big factor is that the economy is trumping the social conservatism that has been so important in the last few elections.

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