I read from a blogger from that general area that one of the reasons Hoffman lost (he was predicting a loss when he wrote this) is that it’s the “hill country” and that they don’t like outsiders trying to horn in. Hoffman is a carpetbagger, an outsider, of course he wasn’t going to win, especially because of the grandstanding support from the “valley folk”. As this blogger stated, you just have to look back at a fellow named Ethan Allen to see what folks in that area think about outsiders telling them what to do.

(Yes, I know Allen wasn’t in that area)