Mike McCarter knows his American history almost as well as he knows his Bible. His family has lived and worshipped in Oregon for four generations. “The only time I lived out of the state was during the Vietnam War when I was in the military,” he said.
But his Oregon may not be the Oregon you’re thinking of, the one with the misty rugged coastline, pinot noir wineries, and its loyally Blue politics.
McCarter lives in the town of La Pine, in the state’s rural and more sparsely populated part – the Red side of Oregon.
“It’s almost like the Grand Canyon goes right along the Cascade Range,” he told correspondent Lee Cowan. “It is a big divide.”
What that means politically, he says, is that the Blue part of Western Oregon always outweighs the Eastern part’s Red. “In talking to a legislator over in the Portland area, I said, ‘The legislature doesn’t listen to our people, our representatives over here.’ He said, ‘Whoa whoa whoa, stop, Mike. We hear what they’re staying. We just out-vote you.'”
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