In a column for the Inlander, local Democrat Bliss Bignall disagrees with the premise in an article that originally appeared in the High Country News ("Their Own Private Idaho") that emigres, especially from Orange County, Calif., are responsible to the Far Right political lurch in North Idaho:

First on the list is the mechanization of both the mining and timber industries. Many years ago, a friend who was in the mining machinery business told me that if a mine owner could buy something that would replace even one man, he would. Then came the simultaneous decline in both the mining and timber industries in Idaho. When these mostly pro-union Democrats lost their jobs, they all moved away. We’ve never replaced that population of workers. Another factor is the high number of Mormons (of which I am one). More here.

Question: Do you agree with Bliss Bignall that there are other factors, beyond the invasion of uberconservative operatives, that have caused North Idaho politics to lurch from Democrat to Far Right Republican?