After being passed by a car with a bush/cheney bumper sticker in Minnesota, I decided to watch for signs of political leanings in pink states North Dakota and Montana, as I drive my daughter back to college.
Yesterday, I made it through all of North Dakota. I observed a beautiful state, a little greener than usual for this time of year, but it looks like they've got rain. If you drive through the state, you will be treated to evidence of efforts to restore wetlands and beautiful vistas of sunflower fields. One particularly striking field had sunflowers blooming inbetween windrows of pine trees. I couldn't find my camera, or would have stopped for a picture. Maybe on the way home. And of course I stopped to see the Painted Canyon overlook at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. (Last time I was there, a buffalo was in the parking area.)
Many cars passed me as I was driving below the speed limit to annoy my daughter and save gas. (Note--traffic dropped off dramatically after I passed Mandan.) Pretty early on in the state, a car with an Obama bumper sticker passed-California plates. Then off to the right, the side of a shed was neatly painted with Ron Paul information. And that was it for the pink state of ND. So far, among residents, Ron Paul is winning ND from what I observed. And I guess Barack is winning California.
The Jamestown Sun did carry an article that said obama is organizing 100 teams and will be opening up to 10 offices. 4 are open so far. McCain has 0.
I'm trying to figure out where the 10 offices would be. Fargo, Bismarck for sure. Probably Minot, Jamestown, Dickenson.Grand Forks. Maybe Valley City.
So that's the report from pink state North Dakota.
Today I drove almost all the way through Montana. We are in Missoula, so the remaining 100 miles or so before Idaho will not be surveyed.
Today I learned that indeed, all politics is local. We saw no political bumper stickers, other than the one that said, "guns don't kill people, cell phones kill people" and "Elvis eats live beef."
During the first half of the trip--until Billings--there were lots of road signs related to what is apparently a hard fought race for State Senate District 22. Lane Larson is the Dem. incumbent and Majority Whip of the Montana State Senate. He was elected in 2004. I saw signs in two different locations, he has the bonus of having his signs posted in the same place with popular Montana Governor Schweitzer. He is opposed by Taylor Brown who is apparently a broadcaster on radio in Montana. He had a ton of signs, but the signs were all out on the broad expanse of Eastern Montana, and the district includes Billings--where Larson is from, and we did not drive into Billings, so the sign poll may not be accurate
The other name we saw frequently was Brad Molnar who is a public service commissioner. A little research showed he is a republican, who once organized a "brown out" in Billings to reduce energy use. Apparently someone posted the following on the Billings newspaper website. "I turned on every appliance and light on my place. I wanted to waste as much energy as possible in that hour. I always conserve and I am as green as a frog so when Brad Molnar called for this silly demonstration... a mere token to make it look like something that doesn't add up....this is like Hannible Lecther leading a right to life parade......hey Brad what about the thousand years of coal you talked about. I think I'll go turn on an electric heater and set it outside!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Molnar used creative bright yellow signs in burmashave fashion such as, "Drive slow---around schools---keep future voters---healthy and safe." or something like that. I was driving not taking notes. Lots of these throughout the district.
Once we hit Billings there were no more political signs, no bumperstickers, nothing.
In the Jamestown paper above a republican is quoted saying that Obama campaign had pulled all its advertising in Montana as of the 12th.
It doesn't appear like the Obama campaign is pulling out. In fact they've opened an office in Glendive which is where I stayed last night and is what I would consider a small town. From the Missoulian- August 13.
“We are spending significant resources here,” Hildebrand said. “It's unmatched for a Democratic campaign in Montana. We have a giant volunteer structure.”
He said the campaign's goal is to have Montanans talking with each other about Obama.
So far, the campaign has 14,000 active volunteers in Montana, 1,100 team members and 40 team captains, said Mike Dorsey, Obama's Montana campaign director. Those numbers are expected to grow significantly between now and Nov. 4.
In addition, Dorsey announced that Obama's campaign has opened 10 more offices in addition to the six previously open in Billings, Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls, Helena and Missoula.
The newest Obama offices opened in Bigfork, Dillon, Glendive, Hamilton, Havre, Kalispell, Livingston, Miles City, Whitefish and Wolf Point."
http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2008/08/13/election/state/mt14.txtI will report later about observations in Missoula and the West to East trip.
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