My theory is that someone's voting inclinations are mostly psychologically driven. One of these is the political behavior of your surroundings. I'll be the first to admit I became a democrat because of the people I hated in grade school.
Anyways, I've always noticed how in heavy red states, a district that Obama barely won is probably going to be a very safe democrat district while in heavy blue states, a district barely won by Obama is likely going to be a very safe republican district. It's also how someone like Sherwood Boehlert would probably be a democrat in Georgia where he would find the republicans too unacceptable or how someone like Miles would probably be a republican in Massachusetts because of how liberal the democrats are.
Lastly, I think that someone like Andrew Cuomo would be viewed differently if he was governor of a state like Texas. In New York he can dance around all the issues as much as he wants and even promote some mildly conservative ideas because he has a democratic assembly and a senate only marginally republican (with some of those senators being mini jacob javits). He doesn't feel the need to be aggressive because the legislature isn't overly agressive.
If he was governor of Texas, he would probably be seen as a hyperpartisan liberal as he would be someone to veto 90-95% of all the bills going through because he would see much of the bills going through as a threat while in NY they wouldn't be.