Is Bullock competent?
That’s what everyone’s asking.
I mean, he’s munged-up the 100-year Senate seat, he stopped talking to his lieutenant governor, and now he’s cancelling appearances on radio talk shows.
WTF!?!
I don’t know what to think and I’m not alone.
When I get like that I like to gather as many facts around me as I can. Let’s take a look at those facts.
2014
February 2014 – McLean appointed by Bullock as Montana’s next Lieutenant Governor.
December 2014 – Sometime this month McLean has a ‘private conversation’ with the governor,” one that created “a hostile ‘atmosphere.’” (MTN report)
That’s what everyone’s asking.
I mean, he’s munged-up the 100-year Senate seat, he stopped talking to his lieutenant governor, and now he’s cancelling appearances on radio talk shows.
WTF!?!
I don’t know what to think and I’m not alone.
When I get like that I like to gather as many facts around me as I can. Let’s take a look at those facts.
2014
February 2014 – McLean appointed by Bullock as Montana’s next Lieutenant Governor.
December 2014 – Sometime this month McLean has a ‘private conversation’ with the governor,” one that created “a hostile ‘atmosphere.’” (MTN report)
2015
May – “McLean tried to get Bullock to pick her for the ticket,” according to emails reported upon and which I’m reading on the Flathead Beacon.
September 17 – Bullock is on a string of DGA fundraising tours.
September 27 – McLean, Bullock and David Parker have a meeting where it was revealed both men said they “did not believe McLean could be happy in her job.”
September 27-October 1 – “Tension seemed to come to a head” after the September 27 meeting.
October 1 – McLean and Bullock have a meeting. She tells Bullock “that she believed the best path forward was to name her as his running mate.”
October 1-2 – David Parker calls McLean and tells her “to imagine a workplace if she stayed in her post, but Bullock took away her initiatives and her ability to serve the people of Montana.”
October 2 – McLean sends an email to Bullock describing the September 27 meeting and how she thought they didn’t think she’d be happy continuing with her job. McLean also says “regardless of your running mate I am not leaving my post.”
October 4-5 – David Parker tells McLean “that the governor wanted her in a ‘more traditional’ lieutenant governor role and that her policy initiatives would be handled by other administration staff.
October 6 – McLean emails Bullock telling him of what David Parker told her about her policy initiatives being taken away.
October 7 - David Parker is reassigned from Communications Director to director of Main Streets Montana. Tim Crowe takes over as Communications Director.
October 11 – McLean in an email “wrote that she had asked the governor weeks before whether she would be on the ticket, with no response.” (ABC Fox Montana)
October 22 - Chief of Staff Tracy Stone-Manning berates McLean for tweeting about Denise Juneau’s U.S. House bid, saying "We cannot use state resources on any electioneering activities, and simply retweeting that announcement could be construed as electioneering. Even if you used your personal phone to send these tweets, the appearance of the account as official makes it problematic."
October 23 - McLean emails back to Stone-Manning telling her that she used her personal account for that tweet about Juneau. Her response to Stone-Manning is to say, "I remain committed to resolving the issues that led to being locked out of Twitter, to me being stripped of my initiatives and the meaningful work I have done in Indian Country and around Montana. I remain committed despite being excluded from daily meetings and having each of my meetings with the Governor cancelled in I believe what is an effort to get me to leave my post as LG."
October 28 - Stone-Manning chastises McLean for a "32 minute plus" introduction of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez during his Montana visit that month even though McLean "received a very kind and nice note on my introduction from the Secretary himself." The introduction was supposed to be around 10 minutes, it's revealed.
Late-October – McLean applies for her Commissioner of Higher Education job.
October 29-30 - McLean starts trying to get a meeting with the governor. A conference call is shot down
November 8 - McLean again tries to get a meeting with the governor. One is set for that day but doesn't seem to happen.
November 9 - McLean tries again for a meeting, is told the governor is travelling from Missoula and has no time.
November 10-12 – McLean reveals in email that she and Bullock did not speak for “more than a month after the Oct. 1 meeting.” She tries for a Sunday November 14th meeting. She's told that's no good. All of these email are through Stone-Manning.
November 10-30 – Through a series of emails we know that McLean is “locked out of her official Twitter account and having her appointments with Bullock canceled.
November 30 – McLean announces she’s going to step down from the lieutenant governor position on January 4. Bullock is in Texas when the news breaks.
November 30 – Rumors about Bullock improprieties surface.
December 2 – Rumors about Bullock improprieties spread.
December 2 – Montana Cowgirl begins accepting ideas for lieutenant governor replacements.
December 2 – MTN reporters release a 12-minute phone conversation with Bullock while the governor is still in Texas. Many question the suspicious pauses around the 5:20 mark on certain questions about when the governor knew that McLean was leaving.
December 3 – McLean’s father-in-law sentenced to 42 months in federal prison for stealing more than $527,000 from clients.
December 4 – News of the 12-minute phone conversation breaks.
December 4 – Don Pogreba at Intelligent Discontent puts up a post called Bullock and McLean Outrage: Just Another Diversion from the GOP’s Noise Machine.
December 4 – Bullock’s 2016 presumed-opponent, Greg Gianforte, continues to travel the state, meeting with Republican groups and small business owners.
December 4 – Bullock flies to Las Vegas.
December 6 – Bullock is in New York to close out his 1-year Democratic Governor’s Association (DGA) job. He caps off his trip with an NFL game fundraiser costing $250,000 a ticket.
December 8 – Great Falls Tribune poll comes out showing Bullock sitting at 50% approval rating, though it was done before the McLean news broke.
December 11 – Bullock issues a Friday night statement saying McLean was “disruptive” for his work. He also tells how he’s “been talking to business and community leaders about possible names for the next lieutenant governor.”
December 16 – Lee Newspaper editors and reporters release a 5-minute video of Bullock explaining the McLean departure.
December 17 – It’s announced that Bullock canceled his Voices of America radio broadcast appearance in Great Falls, something he’d actually done two days earlier.
December 17 - The Montana Standard releases a slide-share showing all the McLean emails (MTN required a password to see them on their site).
Conclusion
Things have moved quickly and they’re still moving. When you begin cancelling media appearances, that’s a huge red flag.
Let’s stay vigilant on this story – it could go anywhere.
Let’s stay vigilant on this story – it could go anywhere.
