Jason S.,
I grow potatoes (just for 2 families), but I am a long ways from your location.
In my location, we have many, many varieties to choose from.
I find that the Pontiacs have very deep eyes, so my choice is Red Norland.
These are an excellent early variety with white flesh, but not the best for longer term storage.
For longer term storage (and good bakers), I plant Russet Burbank.
These have been my favorite for years, but they will sometimes have "hollow heart", which is not a disease but just causes the potato to possibly have a hollow spot in the centre, more so in the larger sized potatoes.
This year I have purchased Russet Norkotah also; they are similar to the Russet Burbank, but mature a bit earlier and have less tendency toward hollow heart.
Myself, I am in favor of purchasing new Certified seed potatoes every year; they are very inexpensive.
Planting your own from last year is OK, but we are starting to get warnings about something called Late Blight in our area. This can be carried over from your old seed stock. This disease is what caused the potato famine in Ireland way back when.
I don't use any chemicals on my potatoes, and have been very lucky in not having Potato bugs.
The attached picture shows the color of the blossom on the Red Norland. The date is accurate, so 4 days later we had our first feed of new potatoes with cream, onions, and dill!
http://vegetablemdonline.ppath.cornell.edu/factsheets/Potato_LateBlt.htm
I am no expert, but this is just my 2 cents, to add to this interesting discussion.
Potato Info here