Note: This story was first published on Sept. 28, 2006.

In the 1970s, former Democratic Vice President Hubert Humphrey drove out to a political rally in Carver County. The organizers of the event, held at Lake Riley, had placed signs by the road to direct Humphrey to the event, recalled Chanhassen attorney/Humphrey friend Miles Lord.

However, by the time he got here, Republican tricksters had moved the signs, ultimately leading Humphrey down a dead-end road in the middle of a cornfield. Humphrey thought Lord had played the trick. He got out of his car shouting into the corn, “Miles Lord come out of there you son of a gun,” recalled Lord, former Minnesota attorney general.

The anecdote could serve well as a political metaphor: “Carver County: Leading Democrats down dead-end roads for decades.”

If our state, like our nation, were divided into red for Republican or blue for Democrat, Carver County would shine red like the sun.

The county was Republican enough to land a campaign stop by President George W. Bush in 2004. “Chanhassen is a perfect place for the president to come visit. President Bush certainly enjoys strong support in Carver County,” explained a Republican communications director.

“Strong” might be an understatement. The majority of county residents have voted for Republican presidential candidates for the past 18 elections. The last time the county voted for a Democratic presidential candidate was 1932. After voting for Franklin Roosevelt once, the county has favored Republican presidential candidates.

Political tradition

The county also leans strongly to the right on the state level. The last time county residents sent a Democrat to the Minnesota Legislature was 1990. That’s right. Children born the last time a Democratic candidate was sent from Carver County to the Legislature would have just started their sophomore year in high school.

Before 1990, you’d have to travel back to 1980 for the last time a majority of Carver County voters opted for a Democratic legislator - in this case, state senator and Jordan farmer Robert Schmitz. (Although, in 1982 Carver County favored Independent candidate and County Commissioner Earl Gnan in his unsuccessful bid for state senate.)

That’s not to say other Democrats haven’t recently represented parts of Carver County. During the late 1980s, Chanhassen was in a different senate/house district from the rest of the county. The city was then represented by popular DFL Rep. Becky Kelso, but a majority of Chanhassen voters always chose her Republican opponent.

Sixteen years ago, Waconia resident Larry Bodahl proved a Democratic anomaly, blocking the county’s Republican machine. Bodahl defeated Republican K.J. McDonald, who served as Carver County’s state representative for 14 years; who had succeeded Republican Ralph Jopp, who had served for 16 years; who succeeded Republican Howard Ottinger, who served for 22 years.

So after a half century of Republican domination, Democrats finally had a state representative for Carver County.

The last Democrat

Bodahl hasn’t thought about it in a long time, and a telephone call from a reporter had him mining for memories.

“I was running - and this sounds naïve - on an apolitical position. I wasn’t wrapping myself in the banner of one party or another,” Bodahl said.

At the time, Bodahl served as Waconia mayor and Victoria’s city administrator. Going from the world of non-partisan city government to the strongly partisan state government was an “eye opener,” he said.

“I wasn’t all that interested in putting my name out there, just because the history of Carver County had always been much more conservative than any Democrat that had put their name out there,” Bodahl said. “I too, wasn’t as conservative as the district, which was probably why I only served one term.”

Buoyed by name recognition in Waconia and Victoria, and strong campaigning by volunteers, Bodahl edged McDonald with 439 votes.

McDonald, now mayor of Watertown, believes that the 1990 gubernatorial race impacted the vote. (The election included the last minute switch of Republican Arne Carlson for Jon Grunseth after his campaign was beset by a scandal.) Following the election, “A lot of people realized, ‘Our vote did count,’” McDonald said.

McDonald, a charismatic Watertown native, grew up in a family of 11 brothers and sisters. His parents were Democrats, but after the growth of Communism in Europe, began voting Republican. He remembers his dad telling him, “Harry Truman let Stalin invade the Eastern European countries. Never again will I vote for (Democrats). They betrayed Christian countries to the atheistic Communists.”

Bodahl’s service in the Legislature didn’t last long. In 1992, following redistricting, he was handed a decisive defeat by former Chaska City Councilor (and current Minnesota Lt. Gov.) Carol Molnau.

“I think Carver County swung back to its roots,” Bodahl told the Herald, following his defeat.

Now Bodahl serves as city administrator for Newport, a job that he said is much higher in his “comfort zone” when it comes to the political arena.

Republican farmers

While the county birthed a few strong Democrat Party leaders, for the most part, it was skipped by Minnesota’s Democratic- Farmer-Laborer Party juggernaut. It’s not alone. Many older agriculture-based counties feature similar political characteristics.

“What you find in Carver County is essentially true of southern Minnesota,” said William Lass, history professor emeritus, Minnesota State University, Mankato and author of “Minnesota: A History.”

“If you look at Blue Earth or Olmsted or Winona, you’re going to find essentially the same thing,” Lass said.

The older parts of the state established a diversified agricultural base, with an emphasis on dairy farming, Lass said. Meanwhile, parts of the state that were established later, such as the Red River Valley in northwest Minnesota, developed a farm economy based on wheat.

“As population built up, and as land values rose, so also did property taxes. And consequently the farmer as a businessman could not cope in a situation where they were only raising one thing. So wheat went to the area that was the newest, in which taxes tended to be the lowest, closer to the frontier,” Lass said.

When the international wheat market dried up in the 1920s, grain farmers began arguing for parity and asking for a national plan to save farmers, Lass said. While wheat farmers joined with Minnesota labor activists to form the Farmer-Labor Party, the movement skipped Carver County.

“About the time Farmer-Laborites ran their first gubernatorial candidate in 1918, Carver County, like the rest of southern Minnesota, would have been relatively well-off agriculturally, economically, and quite content with their Republican roots,” Lass said.

Recent years

In recent years, voters have continued to overwhelmingly favor local Republican legislators.

The Republicans’ chances have possibly been boosted by the latest redistricting that brought Carver County into a single legislative district.

Previously, the solidly Republican towns of Victoria and Chanhassen were in a different district. And, while the county was once composed of Republicans with agricultural roots, now the county Republican base appears to be higher-income young professionals.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, last year Carver County was found to have the 16th highest median income in the nation ($74,127 per household).

Chanhassen DFLer

Despite its historically strong Republican roots, Carver County has produced a few of the state’s strongest Democrats, notably Chanhassen banker Elmer Kelm.

Kelm was chosen as chairperson of the Democratic Party in 1940. In 1944, Franklin Roosevelt summoned Kelm to the White House and asked him to unify the Farmer-Labor and Democratic Party factions to increase his chances of winning the next election, according to “Chanhassen: A Centennial History.”  

With Hubert Humphrey, Kelm helped merge the two groups into the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and served as the first DFL chairperson. Kelm also schooled Humphrey on the inside politics of the party, said Lord.

According to “Centennial History,” when Humphrey ran for president in 1968, he told a Minnesota audience, “If it hadn’t been for a small town banker from Chanhassen, I would never have had a chance. He gave me the opportunity.”