Plumage wins Blaine County commission race

Incumbent Blaine County Commissioner Dolores Plumage handily kept her seat Tuesday, defeating Carlotta Benson in the Democratic primary with more than 83 percent of the vote, 178 to 36.

Plumage is uncontested in the general election. She was uncontested in both the primary and general election in 2008.

Plumage won the seat in 2002 after a federal judge ruled Blaine County’s at-large voting system violated the rights of Native Americans and ordered that only voters from the commissioner’s district could vote in the elections.

Previously, all voters in the county voted in every commissioner election, as they do in most Montana counties.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed suit against Blaine County in 1999, alleging that the county's voting system prevented Native Americans from electing a candidate of their choice. Although more than 45 percent of the county population is Native American, a Native American commissioner had never been elected before Plumage.