The other day I wondered by Corey Stapleton would possible donate $90,000 to his own failed bid for governor. Today, the answer became more clear: because this fall he wants to help Democrats remind Montana voters just how unsuited for the governor’s chair Rick Hill is.
The ad, while incredibly awkwardly animated, isn’t really unfair. Everyone knows that Hill has other baggage he’d like voters to forget, so Stapleton is being more than fair to point out Hill’s policy failures. He did support a sales tax. He did turn Workers’ Comp into a mess. And he did make an obscene amount of amount with sweetheart real estate deals.
So thanks, Corey. You’re probably still not going to crack 10% in the primary, but we appreciate this ad.
Republican “candidate” for State Auditor Derek Skees raised an entirely unimpressive $1,280 from individuals in his last campaign finance report, which isn’t entirely unsurprising given his unorthodox and even secessionist views. What is surprising, however, is that almost half of that total came from the Daines family in Bozeman, with Republican House candidate Steve Daines and his wife each contributing a maximum donation of $310 for the race.
Can we assume that means Mr. Daines approves of Mr. Skees and his rather unique political viewpoints? It seems like a bold move to support a candidate who:
opposed Social Security.
supports a sales tax in Montana.
is involved with the extremist John Birch movement.
believes in a state’s right to allow slavery and human trafficking.
Surely an Internet entrepreneur as skilled as Mr. Daines could outsource a Google search to Asia before deciding to contribute to a candidate’s campaign.
It’s certainly troubling that someone who wants to represent all of Montana believes that someone as dangerous as Derek Skees would make a good choice for auditor. It seems fair not only to judge candidates by the company they keep, but by the candidates they support.
When the Democratic race for Attorney General began in earnest, I didn’t know who to support. Unlike people who follow politics professionally in Montana, I didn’t have a strong opinion about either Jesse Laslovich or Pam Bucy; I simply knew that Democrats were going to need a strong candidate to run against Tim Fox, who gave Steve Bullock a close race in 2008.
While each candidate has impressed me with professional qualifications and personal values, I’ve found the campaign waged online by supporters of Ms. Bucy to be unimaginably awful. I’ve written about this before, but the anonymous attacks haven’t come to an end. As the primary has gotten closer, the attacks have been more persistent, more personal, and more desperate.
It’s certainly not surprising that people affiliated with political campaigns anonymously comment on blogs and other online news sources. What has been surprising, however, is just how willing supporters of Ms. Bucy have been to attack Mr. Laslovich, a fellow Democrat who has remained entirely positive during the race.
I’ve said all along that I will support either candidate against Tim Fox in the general election, but that commitment is wavering. If supporting Ms. Bucy means supporting this kind of campaigning and the politics of personal destruction, I’m not sure I can do it.
Two qualified candidates with excellent resumes are facing off in the Democratic primary for Attorney General. It’s just terribly unfortunate that only one campaign is behaving that way.
While an earlier post described a recent mailer as coming from the Laurie McKinnon campaign, the flier was specifically sent out by a group calling itself the Montana Growth Network, based in Red Lodge.
What is the Montana Growth Network? It’s yet another of Jason Priest’s fantasy organizations, sharing the same phone number, web host, and physical address as his very prestigious and entirely illusory “Montana Senate Policy Committee.” Just another title for an organization of one, designed to collect donations from out of state corporate interests and justify newspaper publication.
Unfamiliar with Senator Priest? This video, in which he calls all liberals liars and compares the “progressive agenda” to a virus, is an instructive clip. You might remember he’s the “entrepreneur” who practiced vulture capitalism on those who accrue enormous debt in our broken health care system.
Just how many fake organizations does Senator Priest need to promote his misguided agenda? Given his credibility problems, I certainly understand his desire to hide his extremist agenda behind organizations designed to give him the appearance of credibility, but it seems that there might be some conflict of interest and some ethically shady grounds when an active legislator relies on secret donations to promote his political viewpoint.
Priest also claims that donations to the Montana Growth Network are tax-deductible, but the site never indicates what kind of non-profit status it has.
Who pays for the nakedly political Senate Policy and who pays for the allegedly non-partisan Growth Network?
As for Judge McKinnon, despite her efforts to paint herself as a non-partisan candidate, the evidence makes it clear she is anything but. It’s not just that Jason Priest supports her. Her own campaign sent out a letter from Judge Nels Swandal, who practically ran as an elephant he was so Republican in 2010.
I really don’t know Judge McKinnon well enough to make a judgment about her suitability for the Court, but it’s hard to imagine supporting someone Jason Priest is so enthusiastic about.
One of the great things about blogs is that they provide a forum for experts to provide more detailed information on subjects the media simply lacks the time to cover fully. A great example of that comes in the form of two posts by local immigration attorney Shahid Haque-Hausrath discussing the immigration records of Democratic Attorney General candidates Pam Bucy and Jesse Laslovich.
I believe that the manner in which Pam Bucy handled this situation calls into question her interpretation of the privacy protections of the Montana Constitution, and her willingness to share confidential information with the federal government. These are issues that are important to those who oppose state-level enforcement of immigration laws, but are also important to Montana in many other respects. For instance, this may be of interest to those who are advocating for Montana’s medical marijuana laws.
In summary, I believe that Pam Bucy took conduct that was a very clear violation of the law, wrote new rules to seemingly prohibit the illegal conduct, but also created significant loopholes that would purport to legalize this very same conduct.
In the end, I view this as actually making our confidentiality protections worse — not better. In the interest of bureaucratic administration, I believe Pam Bucy has set aside important privacy considerations under Montana law.
Jesse Laslovich voted on three relevant bills in 2005, four relevant bills in 2007, and five relevant bills in 2009 — for total of 12 bills relating to state-level enforcement of immigration laws.
There were a total of four votes that I would characterize as “incorrect” votes, including one bill that he sponsored. However, as noted above, the bill he sponsored in 2005 did not attempt to create any enforcement mechanism or penalties. Therefore, it is not in quite the same category as the later bills sponsored by Jim Shockley and others.
In the 2007 session, Jesse Laslovich was a swing vote that killed SB 258, which would deny state licenses and license renewal to “illegal aliens.” This was a 25-25 vote.
In the 2009 session, which was Jesse Laslovich’s last session in the Senate, he played an important role on the Senate Judiciary Committee as several of Jim Shockley’s anti-immigrant bills were debated.
I’ll let Shahid’s work speak for itself, but it highlights one of the key challenges in this race: while Laslovich has a very public legislative record, it’s much more difficult to see where Ms. Bucy stands on issues, not because of any obfuscation on her part, but simply because of the jobs she’s held. A couple of well-researched posts like these offer invaluable insight into the values and priorities of the candidates and are well worth your time.
This is rich. One of the Republican candidates for Secretary of State, Scott Aspenlieder, desperate to get his name in the newspaper is claiming that there is a “failure of leadership” at the Secretary of State’s office because two unnamed voters in Yellowstone County did not receive primary ballots for each party and because a [...]
Winner: Cell Phone Carriers AND TRADITIONAL PHONE COMPANIES It was a big week for phone companies in Montana as both the Bucy and Miller campaigns violated state law with a series of robocalls across the state. The Miller approach was far more egregious, as the candidate called 100,000 numbers across the state, including reporters, liberal [...]
Do you ever wonder what Ryan Zinke was thinking when he hitched his political future to Neil Livingstone’s wobbly cart? We’re talking about someone who was seen as a series Republican contender for the governor’s chair in his own right just a year ago but who’s now found himself in the awkward position of having [...]
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