Everything you really don't need to know about the Montana Primaries
By Jennifer McBride / Leader Staff
The deadline has passed. All the candidates for public office on the state level have filed — including more than 80 new candidates who slid, like Indiana Jones, under the rapidly closing iron gate of electoral glory. The primary season is now, officially, in full swing. Gentlemen, start your engines.
And I do mean gentlemen. Despite the strategically-placed air holes women have drilled in the glass ceiling, the game of politics remains indisputably the realm of men. According to Montana's legislative Website, in the Montana state senate, only nine out of 50 senators and 29 out of 100 house members are women, 18 and 29 percent respectively. The percentage is similar in terms of filing: of the 367 or so names on the secretary of state's Website of those running for in-state positions, approximately 90 of them are women. These include local candidates Joey Jayne, who is running against incumbent C.B. McNeil for Lake County district court judge; Representative Janna Taylor from Dayton; and Carol Cummings of Polson, who is one of the three Republicans battling for the right to fight over Constitution Party member Rick Jore's house seat. Jore is out because of term limit laws, which forbid reelection if a elected official has spent eight of the last 16 years in office.
One of the women running wins my personnel award for best name on the ballot: Frosty Calf Boss Ribs of Heart Butte is fighting against Tribal Chairman James H. Steele and Mark E. Neilson for Jayne's house seat. If Steele wins, it will be interesting to see how he balances his role as Chairman with the title of state representative. Because all three are running as democrats and no Republican has filed in the race, June 3's election will be more important, legislatively, than the November race.
Even if Hillary Clinton drops out before Montana gets a chance to have its say (which is quite likely — while her victory is mathematically still possible, unless there's a change in the Florida/Michigan quagmire, realistically the only way she'll overcome her delegate deficit is if Obama decides to hit himself on the head with a polo mallet at the next nationally televised debate), you should still register to vote in the primaries. National elections are sexy, but local elections actually affect our daily lives. President Clinton, President Obama, President McCain or, hell, President Paul, would not have as tangible an effect on your child's education, your taxes, and, Lord help us, your potholes (a.k.a. "Montana swimming pools") as your local officials.
Two of Governor Brian Schweitzer's democratic primary opponents saved him $260,000, according to the Missoulian. Current campaign law limits donations from individuals to $500 per gubernatorial election, June and November, for a total of $1,000. But uncontested elections don't count. If Schweitzer hadn't found an opponent, he would have had to return $260,000 in funds.
Of course, both of the Democratic opponents who filed just before the deadline deny entering to help Schweitzer. One, a teacher in Helena, told the Independent Record he's running to raise awareness about K-12 education funding. The other candidate is running because, the Record reported, God is with him.
Lakeside resident Bill Fischer, 48, is co-founder of Kingdom Power Glory International, which performs charity mission work in India and Africa, the Record said. One of Fisher's planned initiatives is to establish a "24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week prayer system in which people would be praying for Montana constantly." God has gifted him with a revelation telling him that, if he's elected, admissions to hospitals will drop 10 percent in his first year of office, along with violent crime.
"Whatever individual would give the greatest glory to the name of Jesus and the greatest glory to the people of Montana should be the winner. I'm asking people to vote for the most godly man," he told the Record.
Another interesting racer is Shay Joshua Garnett, 34, one of two truck drivers who filed as Republican contenders for Senator Max Baucus' seat. According to the Associated Press, Garnett is wanted on an outstanding warrant in Indiana for failing to appear in court to prove he had finished counseling mandated by the court after he had been convicted for stalking, harassment and invasion of privacy. The A.P. reported Garnett had sent letters to two female students at Purdue University in 1997. One of the letters was 120 pages long and contained "physical threats and sexual references." Another letter tried to persuade one of the women to help convince a psychologist that Garnett was not obsessed. The warrant is of a type that can only be enforced in Indiana and neighboring states, so Garnett won't be extradited.
While voters may or may not change governors and senators, they will change the House. A lot of powerful personalities are leaving their seats up for grabs — potentially changing the balance of power, which is split 50-49 in favor of the Republicans (the single leftover is Constitutionalist Jore, who usually votes with the pacaderms). One of the noted people who didn't file for re-election was Representative Roger Koopman (R-Bozeman), who famously tried to recruit a set of primary opponents for Montana Republicans he called "socialist" — including John Bruggeman (R-Polson).
According to political columnist Charles S. Johnson, Koopman used to keep a desk plant which he called his "liberty tree." When a bill he favored got defeated, he would berate his colleagues for voting against the cause of liberty. Then he would ceremoniously rip a branch off his tree. No wonder the government almost couldn't past a budget and went into a shutdown. With politicians like these, who needs enemies? The point is, the only way to affect any of this is to pay attention and vote in every election. If you're happy with the way things are, sit back and do nothing on June 3. Meanwhile, I'll be trying to keep the keyboard from leaving red marks when I bang my forehead against my desk.