Any Montanans in the hizzouse? - Democratic Underground

BurtWorm

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Tue Nov-09-04 11:56 AM
Original message

Any Montanans in the hizzouse?

I hear your state legislature went Dem for the first time in a decade and you elected your first Dem governor since 1989. How did that happen? How come your fellow Montanans also voted for Bush? (Not that it would have made THAT much difference if it had gone the other way, but we in the East tend to view the high plains as pretty solidly Republican.)

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ibegurpard

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Tue Nov-09-04 12:18 PM
Response to Original message

1. Legislature gains owe a lot to redistricting

And the Governor owes a lot to the extreme unpopularity of the outgoing Republican governor, plus he had a lot of name recognition from previous statewide office runs.
Montana's "conservatism", like many western states, lies not in religious fundamentalism but in libertarian resentment of "elite" national politicians and policies. If you can make a case of some big bad governmental entity trying to tell Montanans or their businesses what to do then you'll win every time.

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JI7

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Tue Nov-09-04 12:26 PM
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2. seems like we can win them over more than some in the south

since it's not so much based on religion. many of the religious fanatics automatically reject certain candidates based on differences on religion, or things like gay rights or abortion.

but if it's based more on specific things such as policy and how people want to live then it's something we can work with. even on gay rights which they might have a problem with at first , we may be able to make a case for while they should support it no matter personal belief. the religious ones would just reject it outright based on the belief that it's a sin and they would go to hell for supporting it.

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ibegurpard

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Tue Nov-09-04 12:34 PM
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5. "Outsider" policy wonks fail miserably

even if they're telling the truth. You have to be "one of us," you have to be down-to-earth.
A national effort to get Montana will fail miserably. What MIGHT work is resources and seed money to build local organizations and networks to get out the Democratic Party message and values.

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BurtWorm

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Tue Nov-09-04 12:28 PM
Response to Reply #1

3. How much does Montana extract from the tax meccas back east?

New Jersey, for instance, gets back 57 cents for every dollar it gives to the federal government. What is Montana's ratio of dollars out to dollars in?

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ibegurpard

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Tue Nov-09-04 12:30 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. I don't know

but I would suspect that we get back more than we put in.

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YNGW

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Tue Nov-09-04 01:07 PM
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6. Zell Miller is a Democrat....

.... but he's not a liberal. My own Gov. of NC is a Democrat, but overall he's not that liberal. My guess is you'd find that many of these Democrats in Montana are more conservative than some Republicans in the Northeast. Being from the South, I can tell you that many Democrats who hold office on the local level are not very liberal.

Your question might be better framed with those factors in mind.

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Stephanie

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Tue Nov-09-04 04:30 PM
Response to Reply #6

7. As an exiled Montanan I think you're wrong there

I think the Democrats in Montana are quite liberal. Missoula is a smaller Seattle. Montana was a Democratic stronghold for many, many years - as a labor state that relied on mining and timber industry. There are many environmentalists, outdoors types, hippies, hipsters. Don't stereotype Montana because it can't be done.

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