This time next week, the vote will come in. I suspect it’ll happen around 8 or 9 at night, on Tuesday, September 14.
An hour to the west of us, they’ll be close to counting the recount ballot in California.
There, Elder has a very good chance of knocking Newsom out. Here in Missoula, Elder doesn’t have much of a chance.
If you would have asked me ten days ago, I’d say without hesitation that Jacob Elder would advance to the general, along with John Engen.
I won’t say that anymore, not after the disastrous week Elder had, with the unflattering blog post shared thousands of times, plus the image of him with Zinke.
I think Knopp has taken the lead over Elder because of these things. It’s not that many will switch their vote from Elder to Knopp, it’s just that so many simply won’t vote now, so turned-off are they.
Of course, that’s just my opinion.
It’s just my damn eyes get in the way.
I see things...like the lack of any new Elder signs around town. Or the fact that in the span of three months, his Facebook page has only garnered another 50 likes or so.
Yeah, not much...but I’ve just got a feeling.
Got a pretty good feeling that I’ll be done come Tuesday, likely coming in last in the four-way race. No surprises there.
The biggest problem I’ll have after that is giving away the $150 in campaign donations I managed to raise, none of which I’ve spent.
In the past, I’ve given excess funds to charity. Most give it to other candidates. That crossed my mind when I heard Brad Tschida was running for SD 49 against Willis Curdy. I ran against Willis in ‘14 and lost. Was the first year he got into the legislature.
But then, Brad Tschida doesn’t give a flying fuck about me, so why should I care about him? I shouldn’t, and I won’t.
I’ll probably just give it to the Montana Food Bank Network and the Montana Special Olympics.
I feel pretty good about my run, if you even want to call it that.
Before I filed, Elder hadn’t mentioned affordable housing once. It wasn’t a real priority for Engen, either.
But then on June 22, I filed and the press talked to me, and I made housing the #1 issue.
“Housing, housing, housing!” I told the media outlets that night, and they ran it, and that changed the race.
Elder was forced to start talking about it. Engen got his various departments to accelerate the issue as well. Since I filed, the Missoula Current has been putting up pro-city propaganda pieces each week when it comes to the housing issue.
All of the media now admit that housing is the top issue, followed closely by homelessness. I paid $950 to get this pressing issue of need into the forefront of our community’s consciousness, and it worked.
But I’ve been honest, telling people that once this race is over - and if Engen is likely elected again - all of this affordable housing talk will go away, and the developers will once again have free reign to build their high-priced condos, luxury hotels, and posh art galleries. Most likely, existing housing will be torn-down to make that a reality.
Yes, I am pessimistic. I don’t feel good about that. But I look at the world the way it is, not as I want it to be.
Hopefully Missoula can get on the right track. Have a good week.
