Politics
Garfield County is a solidly Republican county. It might be the most Republican county in Montana and the nation.
The last Democratic Presidential candidate to carry the county was Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940. In the last five Presidential elections no Democratic candidate has managed to receive more than 16%. In the 2000 presidential election Republican George W. Bush won 87% of the vote to Democrat Al Gore's 8%. In the 2004 presidential election, Garfield County gave 90.08% of its votes to President George W. Bush, with John Kerry receiving 7.94% of the vote. In the 2008 presidential election, Senator John McCain received 82.3% with Senator Barack Obama receiving 15.1%.
Garfield County is also Republican at a local level. Democratic governor Brian Schweitzer has never received more than 38% of the county's vote and no Democratic gubernatorial candidate has carried the county in decades. As part of the 15th district of the Montana Senate it is represented by Republican Jim Peterson and as part of the 30th district of the Montana House of Representatives it is represented by Republican Dave Kasten.
Read more about this topic: Garfield County, Montana
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint. Each is a thing used in politics or music which those fellows who practise politics or music manipulate somehow. Show him one and he will deny that it is politics at all. It must be corrupt or he will not recognize it. He has only seen dried figs. He has only thought dried thoughts. A live thought or a real idea is against the rules of his mind.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“In politics people throw themselves, as on a sickbed, from one side to the other in the belief they will lie more comfortably.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
“The average Kentuckian may appear a bit confused in his knowledge of history, but he is firmly certain about current politics. Kentucky cannot claim first place in political importance, but it tops the list in its keen enjoyment of politics for its own sake. It takes the average Kentuckian only a matter of moments to dispose of the weather and personal helath, but he never tires of a political discussion.”
—For the State of Kentucky, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)