Carlton County, Minnesota

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

What is said above is basically correct. It is a big mining area and very unionist.

What Pym says on my previous comments is also true. Both Carlton and neighboring St. Louis county, haven't voted Republican in over 70 years. The tradition of Democratic voting there is so strong that it can beat pretty much any wedge issues the GOP throw out. Kind of the opposite of those Republican enclaves in the south that have been so since the Civil War and are impossible to swing. Also most people in the area are not big fans of the religious right or the ultra-social conservatives of the GOP. I doubt Michele Bachmann would be too popular up there. That's why I'm sure it's not going anywhere anytime soon and is probably the most Democratic predominately white rural area in the country.

The income in this case is due most of the population being located fairly close to Duluth in what effectively becomes an exurban area, however unlike most exurbs the voting patterns don't change much, largely because the people there probably originally lived in Duluth or the rural parts and kept their voting patterns as they moved in and are still blue collar. And the area is so solidly Democratic the GOP simply doesn't have any sort of organization at all, and as long as that's the case they just won't win.

This area is actually more Democratic than Hennepin county yes because it is solid and doesn't have those awful outer suburbs I hate so much that Hennepin does. And it is also the most partisan, as it voted for Humphrey III pretty overwhelmingly in the 1998 governor's race while Hennepin and Ramsey counties voted for Ventura (although Humphrey probably won the Twin Cities proper)