The facts and figures aren’t quite in yet, even if all the vote is. It was a wild and raucous evening in Montana politics, and now we need to start cleaning up the mess. Here are some things that stand out to me.
PSC Race
I think the Montana Democrats really dropped the ball on this race. Montana Cowgirl was really the only site that I noticed that ran anything on Galen Hollenbaugh. I kept on thinking that I needed to do a ‘who is’ piece on both Rice and Hollenbaugh, but I just never got around to it.
The race didn’t seem important. Oh, we all knew how important it was – having Brad Johnson, former ‘corrupt’ secretary of state on there, who’s now a energy lobbyist? – but we just didn’t act like it.
So what can be done? I think a good place to start would be having some bigwig from the Montana Democratic Party call up Hollenbaugh and say, ‘damn, we’re sorry for ignoring you and discounting you and making you do all the work. What the hell use is a political party, eh?’
The race didn’t seem important. Oh, we all knew how important it was – having Brad Johnson, former ‘corrupt’ secretary of state on there, who’s now a energy lobbyist? – but we just didn’t act like it.
So what can be done? I think a good place to start would be having some bigwig from the Montana Democratic Party call up Hollenbaugh and say, ‘damn, we’re sorry for ignoring you and discounting you and making you do all the work. What the hell use is a political party, eh?’
The Map
Right now the only map I’m seeing is that put together by the Montana Stockgrowers Association, which looks like this for the House race:
2014 Montana House Race Map, from Montana Stockgrowers Association
I’d like to see some more maps as the day progresses, and I think we will. I pretty much already said it on Twitter, but I’ll say it again here for posterity.
- Republicans will have a helluva time in 10 years when those red areas dry up in population, their aging residents dying or moving.
- Those blue spots will become more powerful as the population in the cities grows.
- What was the impact of the reservations, and how did those new satellite voting offices turn out?
- As you can see, the Democratic message in eastern Montana and along the Hi-Line failed miserably…as usual.
Leadership
What will happen with the current leadership of the Montana Democratic Party? It’s a good question, because the losses were big in many races, and many races that had lots of money spent were still lost.
Now, many campaigns make their own decisions, wholly separate from what the Montana Democratic Party is doing. Sometimes it’s the candidates, and sometimes they have campaign staff that they pay.
In many instances, both of those two elements failed spectacularly in many races, races that we had.
So we didn’t have them. We didn’t have them all along and the bluff was called. The turnout was lower than expected. Yesterday everyone was saying how it was higher…but it wasn’t.
Damn, Democrats often say things that turn out to be not true. How long can you stand the boy who cried wolf all the time?
- What the hell happened with Franke Wilmer? I thought she was going to be really important this year?
- What happened with Diane Sands? That race was in the bag…wasn’t it?
- What went wrong with the Dave Strohmaier race here in Missoula? Many on KGVO Talk Back radio today said it was too many knocks on the door (5 to 6) and too many attack mailers. Truth or BS?
Now, many campaigns make their own decisions, wholly separate from what the Montana Democratic Party is doing. Sometimes it’s the candidates, and sometimes they have campaign staff that they pay.
In many instances, both of those two elements failed spectacularly in many races, races that we had.
So we didn’t have them. We didn’t have them all along and the bluff was called. The turnout was lower than expected. Yesterday everyone was saying how it was higher…but it wasn’t.
Damn, Democrats often say things that turn out to be not true. How long can you stand the boy who cried wolf all the time?
Obama
More people went to the polls yesterday to vote against Obama than voted for him. In Montana people were chomping at the bit to do so.
- These were seniors saying give me back my healthcare.
- These were business owners saying let my workers alone so I can have them work more than 30 hours a week.
- These were young people saying get that national debt under control, because I have to pay my student loans each month, gramps, you pay your bill too.
Final Thoughts
It’s hard going against discontent like that. I think I’ll do a short post on the 1918 election in Montana that kicked Jeanette Rankin out of office. You can read about it in my book Hustlers and Homesteaders, but maybe I’ll put something up later today on the Montana blog.
I wish there were more people putting out thoughts, but some folks would rather put their head in the sand and try to forget a loss rather than learn from it.
Maybe they would be afraid to say something like the Forward Montana and other GOTV efforts that seemed to work in 2012 didn’t work this time, that the Democratic field organization wasn’t as effective, and that the core of the Democratic message is flawed.
Shit, is it any wonder we’re in such a mess?
I write books, and then I try to sell them. It’s almost guaranteed that each time I publish a book it’ll fail spectacularly.
When you do that for 50 books you get used to it, and failure is what you eat for breakfast. You have to learn from it so you can change your strategy.
For while it might look like I’m doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, things are tweaked a bit and jiggered and reworked. Oh, it’s similar, but perhaps just more refined and fine-tuned.
So that’s what I’d encourage the Democrats to do today. Or do you like eating bitterness each and every day?
I wish there were more people putting out thoughts, but some folks would rather put their head in the sand and try to forget a loss rather than learn from it.
Maybe they would be afraid to say something like the Forward Montana and other GOTV efforts that seemed to work in 2012 didn’t work this time, that the Democratic field organization wasn’t as effective, and that the core of the Democratic message is flawed.
Shit, is it any wonder we’re in such a mess?
I write books, and then I try to sell them. It’s almost guaranteed that each time I publish a book it’ll fail spectacularly.
When you do that for 50 books you get used to it, and failure is what you eat for breakfast. You have to learn from it so you can change your strategy.
For while it might look like I’m doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results, things are tweaked a bit and jiggered and reworked. Oh, it’s similar, but perhaps just more refined and fine-tuned.
So that’s what I’d encourage the Democrats to do today. Or do you like eating bitterness each and every day?
