How has Larson done a good job?

He lost a senate seat Dems have held basically forever. He risked MDP’s tax exempt status with his illegal fraud concerning the endorsement of John Lewis (who was overwhelming rejected by the voters for good reason).

Dems underperformed in legislative races during the key first cycle after redistricting. Candidate recruitment in 2016 is a complete disaster, with no viable candidates running against either statewide Republican incumbent running for reelection.

​There’s no excitement for MDP, it’s just a smaller and smaller group of corrupt stooges plundering the grassroots for profit.

Jim Larson has been a disaster as MDP Chair. His overwhelming corruption is why fewer and fewer voters identify as Democrats.

​There needs to be serious reform of the MDP, which begins by throwing out the bums who illegally bossed the 2014 primary. The culture of corruption under Jim Larson needs to end.
​
Throw the bum out!

“Historians and other investigators have observed that Irishmen traditionally used drinking as a safety valve for sexual tensions, the depressions of poverty, the frustrations of parental authority, and their hatred of the English. As long as he did not threaten his family’s income, a hard-drinking boy was admired by his peers or treated with maternal affection as ‘the poor boy.’”

​Surveys

Hi Gary,
 
I'm not going to waste your time by filling out this survey. I would like to make two points, however.
 
First, we both know that you decided to endorse the GOP candidate before this race even started. You can argue that this is not the case, and that's fine.
 
Next, why should I be concerned about gun rights when I have no gun rights myself?
 
You see, Gary, I have a prescription to medical marijuana. That means I can't buy a gun.
 
Now, groups like yours will get up in arms if a person with a mental illness can't buy a gun, but should a liberal pot smoker be cut off...who gives a shit?
 
Not hypocritical groups like yours, I'm afraid.
 
Cheers!

 
Home prices in Missoula County have increased rapidly since the end of the economic downturn and incomes haven’t kept up.  The median home sales price for 2017 was $268,250, a price unaffordable for many Missoula families.  These rapidly increasing prices are due primarily to a shortage of housing, particularly in more attainable price ranges.  As a state legislator, you will evaluate policies that will impact housing and economic development in Missoula County.

1. State law broadly outlines the process by which local governments must review subdivisions of land.  Subdivision is the primary vehicle for creating lots to be developed into homes for sale.  Subdivision review policies attempt to balance communities’ housing needs with protecting the environment, agriculture, wildlife habitat, public safety, and other interests.  Does state law provide a framework for a balanced, efficient, and predictable review process at the local level, or are reforms needed? If reforms are needed, please specify.    

 
In 2011, HB 460 was passed by the Montana Legislature, which amended the Unit Ownership Act, specifically local regulations of subdivisions. This means that single unit home and duplex development can occur without subdivision review in the same way traditional condos need to undergo that review.
 
Additionally, new zoning regulations were adopted via MCA 76-2-304 to lay out specific criteria and guidelines for zoning regulations Things like adequate light, transportation systems, compatible urban growth, and the character of the district must all be considered.
 
These are state guidelines, yet here in Missoula we’ve decided that simply meeting the zoning requirements is not enough. This has led to a larger, and longer, review process in the city.
 
Far from helping, this might be leading to larger problems. Besides the rash of in-fill that we’ve been experiencing, these new in-fill projects don’t make a dent in our affordable housing crisis. On top of this, the county is getting sued for $2.2 million right now because Judge McLean ruled last year that they had violated the Montana Standard Subdivision and Platting Act.
 
As you can see, the framework already exists. It’s not the state that’s having the problems; it’s uninformed county commissioners and city councilors.
 

1. Regulatory reform may be one strategy for promoting housing affordability through state law.  What non-regulatory strategies should the legislature pursue? If strategies require funding, where should it come from?

 
Um…where can it come from? In case you didn’t notice, the state is broke. That’s why we were forced to have a special session this year – we have no money. Besides, reducing regulations isn’t going to do diddly-squat.
 
Developers will continue to build their overpriced homes and condos, catering to the out-of-state, just-want-to-get-away-from-it-all retiree set. You think I’m gonna give state money so they can continue to get rich while out-of-staters continue to drive up housing prices, effectively pricing working Montanans out of the market?
 
Please.
 

1. The upcoming legislature may consider changes to state law governing tax increment financing (TIF) and urban renewal districts.  TIF is used within the City of Missoula’s urban renewal districts to combat blight and promote economic development.  However, critics of TIF say that these urban renewal districts can be in place for many years, and TIF diverts property tax revenue away from schools and county governments.  Supporters respond that TIF grows the property tax base and creates jobs, and that once the urban renewal districts sunset, the taxing jurisdictions have significantly more revenue than they would have otherwise had.  Does state law governing TIF and urban renewal districts need to be reformed? If so, how?

 
It’s hard for me to think of a more evil, insidious, or destructive policy for Missoula than that which surrounds our TIFs.
 
Ever since the disastrous decision to build the baseball field, Missoula has had a love affair with TIFs, one that’s self-destructive and causes the city to spiral into a deep morass of funding problems.
 
You see, when you create a TIF, you don’t collect tax money for 5 years from that district. Our love affair with constantly renewing these districts ensures no tax money will ever come. There is no sunset; there is no additional revenue.
 
It’s a vicious cycle – the city, now broke due to no incoming tax money, must continually set up more TIF districts to get money, or just raise taxes on working people, homeowners, and of course continue to try for that local option sales tax.
 
None of this helps property taxpayers, renters, workers, or future generations. It does fill the pockets of a few people at the upper levels of the city and government, and that’s why I’m sure these disastrous policies will continue, unchecked, for years to come. It’s a damn shame.

​Rankings

“Traffic estimates and ranks are based on the browsing behavior of people in our global data panel by default. The rank is calculated using a proprietary methodology that combines a site’s average of daily unique visitors and its number of pageviews over the past 3 months. The site with the highest combination of unique visitors and pageviews is ranked #1.”

Tim Adams

I'll post here for your benefit what I posted on the Green Party groups after the AP story broke.
 
For reference, people like Don and AP reporters have falsely reported that I run shadow blogs for Republicans. It was never made public but Volz [Matt Volz, AP reporter for Montana] had to apologize for spreading incorrect information about me, so I declined to talk to him this time because of his past record.
 
I did talk to several other reporters today so perhaps tomorrow's news coverage will be more balanced. 
 

My work over the past 6 months has been to expose work by corporations and insurance companies to profit from the Higher Education system. Volz characterizes this as "anti-tax" because it fits his narrative.
 
We are raising a generation that is expected to have lower life-expectancy than their parents and grand-parents, struggles to pay off loans from college degrees that do not provide the promise results of higher paying jobs, cannot afford homes in markets catering to out-of-state retirees and college students.
 
I respect people who believe the best way to fix these is through the Dems, but disagree considering the behavior of Bullock and Tester, as well as by simply looking at who they raise money from. 


 
I'm whole-heartedly on board with aspects of non-violence including peace and avoiding war at all costs. We have a great example of that in Jeannette Rankin here in Montana. I've worked on those issues in the past when I was working with Libertarians and for Ron Paul.
 
At the end of the day we don't need 140 military bases around the world, and should scale back our for-profit involvements of contractors like KBR in our state government.
 
My dad was the target of an RPG explosion while he was working for KBR, so this issue is both philosophical and personal to me. If you are not familiar, Rachel Maddow has written a book called "Drift" that is probably the best account of the transformation of our military and foreign policy during the 20th century from a citizen army to a corporately hired one.
 
Ecology is probably where I'd appear "worst" to the average Green party person, mostly because I grew up in Seeley Lake in a timber family.
 
My father who never finished high school was able to raise a family of 4 on a timber worker's salary, and buy a home and have money left over. We picked Huckleberries in the forest, cut firewood to heat our home from the forest, and hunted deer and Elk to have food year round from the forest.
 
It is because of this symbiotic relationship I saw in my family and those of my neighborhoods I tend to try and take a more balanced approached to ecological management issues. I want to preserve the forests for future generations, but also find a balance so we aren't putting low and middle income people out of work.
 
I saw a tremendous amount of resentment growing up towards environmentalists because issues like the Spotted Owl etc. were always framed as being the fault of environmentalists. Overall my position here is balance between interests that allow use but also prevent destruction.


If you're in Bozeman or Missoula you see the tremendous problems that are arising because people cannot find decent jobs and affordable housing. I think the Universities have made this problem worse by catering to out-of-staters with larger pocketbooks and requiring massive amounts of government financed debt. 
 
At the end of the day I believe in social justice work that allows people to live freely, but also has a well-functioning safety net for those in troubled times and who need additional help. Unfortunately I think bureaucratic overhead and the involvement of corporations has tainted this well.


~Why have insurance and pharmaceutical companies been the ones to rewrite our health care laws?
 
When we give sugar subsidies to the tune of $2 billion a year, causing 80% of our food to have added sugar causing problems like diabetes, obesity etc, and such excess we have to start putting it in our gas tanks, isn't that when we should stop?
 
It shouldn't be cheaper for a mother to feed their children corporately subsidized garbage than real, nutritious food. When 8 oz of fruit juice is considered the same as an apple, pizza is a "vegetable" and companies like Monster advertise how you can buy energy drinks with EBT cards, I think there needs to be a change.
 

~I'm an openly gay man who's lived in Montana and faced those corresponding challenges my entire life. Instead of moving away to a big city I stayed here. I've previously been a board member of the Western Montana LGBT center, a HIV and Hep C counselor during the bad meth epidemic of the early 2000s, and raised thousands for a host of gay organizations in the state. I really appreciate that the Greens have steadfastly supported LGBT issues.
 

~I worked extensively on the medical and recreational marijuana initiatives in Montana, including organization and signature gathering. My filing in 2012 was to challenge a Republican legislator over his votes to gut the medical marijuana program, leaving patients who truly needed cannabis as medicine vulnerable and unable to access medicine. 
 

~At the end of the day, I don't want to support any party that puts profit over people. I don't want people who work hard everyday to pay taxes that just go to corporate profits. I want government programs to be lean and efficient so they help the people who need it the most, without overhead skimmed to corporate or special interests. Progressives have not been served well by the Democratic party.
 
Here in Montana they routinely pick their candidates in backrooms, who then go on to lose. Then the grassroots are thrown under the bus. (see John Walsh/Amanda Curtis) This also appear to be the case with Bernie in 2016, which has been proven in court filings showing the DNC coordinating with the Hillary campaign, despite Bernie being the better candidate to take on Trump.
 
I want the people to pick their representatives, not just blindly support whoever the party leaders think will be the best "gimmick" to win."
 

I'll also post a second response that shows testimony before the Regents back in November. 
 

"I know that the Associated Press is attempting to paint me as some covert operative for Republicans. I've made a few comments on here addressing those, but I wanted to post a recent testimony I gave at the Board of Regents meeting that shows some of the things I've been working on.
 
We have a Board of Regents that oversees education in Montana that is intimately involved with banks like Glacier Bancorp and D.A.Davidson and companies like Blue Cross Blue Shield, which is wanting to spend $1.5 million on the LR 128 ballot issue.
 
Higher Education costs have spiraled out of control and the people running these colleges have responded by focusing enrollment on out-of-state students instead of being more frugal or foregoing corporate influence over their spending. I'm attaching my testimony to the regents in November about housing and spending so you can actually see me and hear me speak to these issues.

I'm not going to tell anyone what to think. Don and Pete obviously have their opinions and nobody is going to change them. From my perspective they are so deep down the ideological rabbit hole they now think blog posts denigrating specific people and posting snarky shit on Twitter all day is somehow helping the Democratic party.
 
I would hope people can see that blind allegiance to the Democratic party has only harmed progressives and continuing to support party leaders who pick candidates based on gimmicks over substance has lost many races. 
 

To answer your questions Don, I did data analytics for the GOP during the 2014 cycle. I compiled daily and weekly reports for top campaign staff on what each region had done that day. I gave daily reports on how we were doing with specific demographics of importance to the campaign. 
 

After the campaign was over I was asked to stay on to clean up the party's voter database and try to integrate with it's fundraising efforts.
 
 I did in depth analysis of how much money our fundraising efforts were losing because no one was paying attention to them and just writing checks to consultants in DC.
 
Will Deschamps declined to listen to the advice of myself and the treasurer at the time because he thought it would make him look bad. It was around the time Deschamps was ousted because the party was $80k in debt under his tenure.
 
I was let go because I was told bluntly "this is the last check I can write you where I'm sure it won't bounce."
 
It didn't ultimately matter, since as I've found out with most political ideologues, they won't listen to anyone but themselves, no matter how bad the advice.

To your 2nd question, here's the GP statement of values and I don't see "free college" anywhere, so you'll have to show me where you came up with this. 


The state university system has increased it's spending 4 fold above what was been given in increased allocation by the legislature.
 
It's also borrowed hundreds of millions more for pet projects, sometimes by members of the banking industry that profits from these loans.
 
You may disagree on the appropriate level of taxpayer funding, but I think the involvement of insurance companies like Blue Cross, D.A. Davidson and Glacier Bancorp should be brought to light so we can have a legitimate discussion on whether higher education is becoming out-of-reach for Montana students because the costs are actually necessary or whether they are there to subsidize the profits of involved corporations.
 

…
 
I'll throw in one more thing. Why does Bullock have almost $500,000 in his presidential aspirations PAC with 3 years in office?
 
That is money that could have gone to your candidates this cycle, instead of letting him suck up all the air in the room.
 
Nobody thinks Bullock has any chance at being President but yet when the Brian Schweitzer train fell off the rails Stern just convinced Bullock to run.
 
If Tester or down ticket Democrats lose this cycle, will anyone be looking resentfully at the huge money Bullock was stockpiling for his own vanity run? Let's hope not...