State Politics
Montana's At-Large Congressional Race

While Census 2000 is eventually expected to give Montana an additional congressional seat, this year's candidates for Big Sky country's lone House representative must again appeal to all 885,000 residents. Montana's at-large House member represents an electorate that generally leans left in the mountainous west and right in the plains of the east.

From Glacier National Park in the northwest to the eastern grazing land, Montana claims geographical and geologic features worthy of romantic images of pioneers and the American frontier. Though its population is relatively small, Montana boasts the fourth largest land area in the union. In 1805 the expeditions of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark crossed the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass in the Rocky Mountains. The Missouri River starts here in the mountains and runs to the Gulf of Mexico, and the Clark Fork River flows to the Columbia River, which empties into the Pacific. Vast plains stretch eastward from the Rockies to Billings and on to badland formations near the border with the Dakotas. Paleontologists appreciate Montana's land for its world-class dinosaur remains.

Montana originally was home to the Crow, Cheyenne and other Native American nations. Most of present-day Montana was annexed in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. After Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore and map the area, fur traders quickly set up shop in the territory. The 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, highlights Montana's part in the conflict between Native and European Americans. In the 19th century, gold, silver and copper miners created the boomtowns of Helena and Butte while cowboys herded cattle in the eastern open range.

Today, Native Americans are the only significant minority group in Montana; they make up about six percent of the state's population. New Montana residents may well be telecommuters or wealthy second-home buyers. While forestry and agriculture -- wheat and cattle -- are still the state's main industries, entrepreneurs doing interstate business from their computers and Hollywood and Wall Street stars buying small spreads have led a surge in Montana's popularity. Montana's population grew over 10 percent in the 1990s, especially near the mountains in Bozeman and Missoula, and tourism is now a key part of the economy.

Last summer's wildfires burned nearly one million acres of western and central Montana (one percent of the state), but the effect of the fires on the state economy are not yet fully known. Many tourism officials and businesses are more concerned about promoting Montana in light of the fires than about the actual damage done to the industry this year. In spite of the influx of upscale newcomers and tourists, Montana's median household income still ranks in the lowest fifth nationwide.

While Montana tends to lean Republican, it is perhaps the most Democratic of the Rocky Mountain states. Democratic enclaves exist on Indian reservations, in the western university town of Missoula and among union members in mines and mills. Still, Billings and the plains are Republican, and the GOP controls the state House, Senate and governorship. Bill Clinton edged President Bush by three percentage points in 1992, but lost the state to Bob Dole in 1996. This year George W. Bush has a commanding lead over Al Gore. Montanans are known ticket splitters too: they elected their Republican governor along with Clinton in 1992.

Montana also has a definite independent streak. Ross Perot gained 26 percent of the vote in the 1992 presidential election and 14 percent in 1996. In 1916 Montana elected the first woman to the U.S. Congress, Jeannette Rankin, who then became the only legislator to vote against American participation in both world wars. For several years Montana did not have a daytime speed limit, and in 1998 the state's courts struck down a ballot initiative that would have required voter consent for tax increases.

Montana's politics, landscape and history intersect and clash at environmental issues. The former mining center of Butte is now the site of a major EPA Superfund cleanup. Past ballot initiatives have banned cyanide use in new gold mines, and the candidates for Montana's House seat are debating oil exploration along the Rocky Mountain Front. In a state with a long mining, timber and agricultural history, there is also a strong appreciation for the outdoors and its national parks and forests.