1. “Sun Belt 1, Manhattan 0″

I wrote on Tuesday that representatives from the financial hubs mostly voted “Yea” and those from poor urban cores and fly-over states mostly voted “Nay.”

This is true, but it there may be a few more cross-currents at work here.

The folks at Observationalism noticed while the New York delegation was the strongest advocate of the financial rescue plan (it’s no longer called the “bailout”), it was Sun Belt states that led the opposition:

“Numerically, it was Texas and Florida that were the motherlodes of the Republican ‘no’ vote. They delivered 15 and 13 ‘no’ votes respectively, against just 4 and 3 ‘yes’ votes. […]

“All in all, Texas delivered a net 14 votes against the bill. Georgia and Arizona yielded a net 9 and 8 votes against the bill; North Carolina 5. There you have the states that weighed most on the scales against the bill.

“If anything, the map suggests that it was the Southern states with some of the most rapidly growing economies of the country that did the bill in. A curious finding, considering you’d think they’d most need the liquidity. But Sunbelt 1 : Manhattan 0 it is.”

2. What’s the Matter with North Carolina?

It’s strange that the Sun Belt states voted against the bill, especially considering that they have the highest rates of home foreclosure. I guess the representatives wanted an insurance program in the package – or maybe they just wanted revenge.

Either way, North Carolina is a unique state in the Sun Belt because of it’s growing banking economy. Joel Kotkin recently explained:

“The takeover of Merrill Lynch by Charlotte-based Bank of America represents another step in the emergence of a true full-tilt competitor to New York as a financial capital. Already dominant in commercial banking, the acquisition places the North Carolina metropolis into the first ranks of cities in wealth management.

“Like Houston after the 1980s energy bust, Charlotte may be well positioned to pick up the pieces even as the finance industry hits the skids.”

Yet, the North Carolina congressional delegation voted 9-4 against the bill, including the three Republicans representing suburban Charlotte. Liddy Dole, who’s locked in a tight race, also cast a “Nay.”

3. The World’s Greatest Deliberative Body?

Still, despite Dole’s short-sighted gambit, Nate Silver at Five Thirty Eight found that “many senators in tough races were willing put their backing behind the measure.”

Silver didn’t find any – or didn’t mention any – correlation between a senator’s geography and his or her vote.

4. The “Mother’s Milk of Politics”

Joel Kotkin at New Geography picked up a different factor: “A quick survey conducted by the Berkeley, California based Maplight.Org showed that members of Congress in both parties who supported the bailout received 54% more money from the financial service industry than those who voted against it.”

5. Corporate/Wellfare

Those fat paychecks from bankers could be drying up in the future, though. “How many former Lehman Brothers bankers or AIG (AIG) executives are likely to be buying a Park Avenue apartment or a home in Darien, Conn., this year?” asks Business Week. “Most likely answer: not many at all.”

And it’s not just campaign coffers and Darien realtors who will be suffering.

Business Week estimates that “New York City and its suburbs will lose 65,000 finance jobs by the middle of 2010, or 11% of the total.” Darien is at the top of the list of towns most likely to be hit and Hoboken, N.J. is also likely to suffer. Outside of the New York orbit, Bloomington, Ill., home of State Farm Insurance, will feel the pain.

Also facing a dire outlook: “Wilmington, Del., where many of the nation’s credit-card companies are headquartered; Charlotte, N.C., home of Bank of America (BAC) and Wachovia (WB); and Sioux Falls, S.D., where many back-office jobs are located, each have about 15% of residents working in finance, real estate, and insurance.”

Here in Northern Virginia we should be relatively stable – The government is always hiring.