BUTTE, Mont. — Montanans are not quick to get riled up over politics. Here in this historic copper and silver mining town, the big news this week is the kickoff of Evel Knievel Days — the annual summer festival featuring flying motorcycles and other stunts that recall the famed daredevil, Butte’s native son.

Now another Butte native — Senator John Walsh, a Democrat who was appointed to office in February — is caught in a plagiarism scandal over a paper he submitted to the United States Army War College in 2007. But voters seem to be taking a wait-and-see attitude as they judge the future of a politician they barely know.

If people here were bothered about anything, it was Mr. Walsh’s suggestion that his behavior was shaped by mental health challenges he suffered while on combat duty in Iraq. That seems to have irked voters, including veterans, more than the allegations that he copied big chunks of a 14-page paper he submitted for his master’s degree.

“I think it’s politicians digging up dirt on other politicians,” Pam Phillips, 54, said of the plagiarism scandal, expressing the views of many voters here. Others, like Joe Sibiga, 58, said the senator — who is trailing his Republican opponent, Representative Steve Daines — should have known such information would come out.