Blaine County, ID

[Husker]

What is the reason this county votes completely opposite of the rest of ID (except for parts of Boise, perhaps)? I've read that this county has attracted some celebrities as part time residents, so I'm really just curious as to how this county became this way.

[All Along The Watchtower]

You are correct: it attracts affluent people, including celebrities, tourists, and corporate executives.

Also, the College of Southern Idaho has a facility there, so employees there are probably mostly Democratic.

As to how it became that way, when the mining economy declined in the late 1800s people were worried that the county's towns would become ghost towns, so they aggressively promoted the area as a resort.

[Hash]

Ski country.

[Verily]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Valley,_Idaho

The sparsely populated eastern parts of the county vote like the surrounding counties.

[Alcon]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Valley,_Idaho

The sparsely populated eastern parts of the county vote like the surrounding counties.

Yep, more or less.

Sun Valley is not nearly the most Democratic part, but it certainly represents the demographic there that swung most.  Ketchum and especially Hailey are the most Democratic.  Like with Teton County, Idaho, many people are moving to non-ski areas too -- for scenery with proximity to resort areas.  If you look at Bellevue on satellite, you'd never guess it voted Obama.

There are basically three parts of Blaine County:

1. The ski bum towns and rural areas nearby (Ketchum, Hailey, Sun Valley)
2004: 79% of population, 64-35 Kerry
2008: 77% of population, 68-30 Obama

2. The transitional farm towns in the valley that are being invaded by ski bums (Bellevue, Gannett, Picabo)
2004: 16% of population, 52-47 Bush
2008: 17% of population, 52-46 Obama

3. The sprase eastern part of the county, which is just regular Idaho(Carey, Yale)
2004: 5% of population, 79-21 Bush
2008: 6% of population, 71-27 McCain

[RI]

2008 results of Blaine County by precinct:

[War on Want]

I am going to repeat what everyone said: it is a ski area. It also has fairly odd politics inside Ketchum, with nutjob third parties often getting decent(like almost 1%) shares of the vote. As is normal with ski towns, it attracts lots of hipster-type, new wave people that are going to be very socially liberal.