| > Most are farmers A few are farmers. Looking back a generation or two most of the people in southern Oregon were employed by the timber industry - that number has shrunk considerably over the last generation. There are Eastern Oregon ranches but they tend to be pretty large so not a whole lot of actual farmers/ranchers in total. Yes, they employ people to work on those farms/ranches. And yes, the counties involved in these votes are pretty sparsely populated, but I'd be surprised if even as many as 20% are employed in agriculture at this point. Here's some data from the ODA: "Oregon’s principal operators of farms and ranchesmake up less than one percent of the total population of Oregon. However, when paid and unpaid on-farm workers are included the total number of workers on the farms and ranchesincreases to approximately four percent of Oregon’s population." [1] > There is no political back and forth like there used to be where you'd have republicans controlling things for a time and then democrats. I'm old enough to remember when Oregon Republicans were by and large quite liberal - at least the ones who actually won statewide elections (Tom McCall, Mark Hatfield, Packwood - all Republicans, all would be considered quite liberal today). Both parties tended to have liberal and conservative wings back then, but the conservatives didn't win many elections. [1] https://www.oregon.gov/ODA/shared/Documents/Publications/Adm... |