Bozeman has not been anywhere near conservative for the past twenty years and in fact has been increasingly moving toward becoming Missoula during that period. Given the way Bozeman has been transformed since the early 1990’s (largely due to the effect of ‘A River Runs Through It’) and the path it is on now, it will only be about another ten years before Bozeman is Missoula, which is what the present-day powers-that-be in Bozeman want. The illusion that Bozeman is still the Bozeman from twenty years ago, let alone thirty or forty years ago, is false. It is not the agriculturally-based community it once was. What was farm land then is now covered with homes, box stores and strip malls, especially in the north and west ends of town.
Spend some time in Bozeman, especially in the downtown area. Watch and listen to what is going on around town. Talk to longtime residents and business owners – not the newbies, the long-timers. Look at who the powers-that-be are at the local chamber of commerce. Watch a few city commission meetings. I’ve done those things in the past couple of years or so and It quickly becomes evident that Bozeman is nowhere near what it used to be and in no way can be labeled as being conservative. There are conservative pockets in Gallatin valley in the Bozeman area but as far as the city of Bozeman itself, it’s definitely liberal.
Look at the composition of the city commission and some of their decisions and priorities. (btw, the Bozeman deputy mayor, who will become the mayor next year for the third time and who is known to wear cargo shorts and Birkenstocks to city commission meetings, is also a member of the Board of Regents and conveniently enough is also a State of Montana university-system employee [but just ignore that conflict of interest]). Here are a few examples: the Story mansion renovation debacle that has cost the city millions of dollars over the past ten years and is still unresolved; the new ‘sharrows’ program for bicycle riders; voting unanimously with very little discussion to approve a second feel-good city staff climate change position (when there is already an unfilled climate change position) out of thin air at the eleventh hour during the recent annual budgeting process; encouraging and approving virtually unrestrained new development while ignoring ‘old’ Bozeman and its infrastructure needs; spending $1 million+ a few years ago for a traffic roundabout on the edge of the MSU campus because they are trendy when a stoplight would have done, etc. etc.
Bozeman has been overrun by mostly liberal out-of-staters and the liberal university crowd in the past twenty years and that is continuing to occur. What used to be a ‘beer and burger’ town is now a ‘wine and cheese’ town. You can’t swing a dead cat by the tail anywhere in town without hitting a specialty coffee shop. Many of the long-timers have thrown in the towel and have either gone into hiding because their voices are not heard or they have left the area. Bozeman has become Missoula-lite now and is rapidly moving to full Missoula status. I’ll take Great Falls and Billings and all of their flaws, both real and perceived, over Missoula and Bozeman.