Voters in Louis and Clark County have decided that some county positions should be decided in nonpartisan races.
After a strong campaign by local Democrats, Gallatin County voters decided just the opposite and voted to keep partisan affiliations in county elections.
What difference does it make if people running for county commission seats, sheriff, county treasurer, clerk and recorder positions declare a party affiliation?
Political scientist David Parker, a professor and department head at Montana State University, says that party affiliation is the single most important piece of information that voters can use to predict how a candidate will behave in office, according to the Independent Record.
Alexander Street, associate professor of political science at Carroll College in Helena, agreed. He told the Independent Record that research shows that if voters do not know a candidate’s party affiliation, they will be “even less informed.”
Commissioner Susan Good Geise of Louis and Clark County disagrees. Good Geise told the Independent Record that very little of a county commissioner's work is partisan-driven.
"We don't make a ton of policy," Good Geise told the newspaper. "We can maybe give something a flavor but were not ideological. The only letters that should be after anybody's name in these jobs, these offices, is L and C for Lewis and Clark County, because that's who we serve."
Parker and Street say they will be studying how the impact of the two counties’ decisions affects local elections going forward.
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