Montana Articles

The Slow Times Start

5/29/2017

Happy Memorial Day!

Not much is happening here in Missoula.

Now that the special election is over there’s not a lot of political news.

The state’s fiscal year-end will be coming up in a month, and shortly after that many state agencies will cut jobs.

Just one consequence of the 2017 Legislature.

Anyways, you can expect to see fewer posts on this site as summer gets started.

I do hope to do some more travel posts, as I want to hike up to quite a few waterfalls this summer.

You might remember some previous posts, like Welcome Creek, Holland Falls, and Glen Lake.

Yesterday one of my odd jobs took me out to Alberton, and I pulled over and took a few photos of the Clark Fork making its way through.

Clark Fork River near Alberton

Boy it’s nice out!

I’m doing a lot of spring cleaning and chores around my house.

My wife and son are in New York right now and will be gone until mid-June.

I don’t have a lot of money and I’m not working a whole lot, but I do hope to get out and about.

Maybe it’s even time to go and meet some political types around the state and ask their opinion on what’s happening with Democrats.

Gas doesn’t cost that much, so it’s doable.

Even heading to UM and talking to a few professors might make an interesting post.

But again, there’s not a lot going on politically…and I don’t care much for talking about Tester and ’18 just yet.

We do know that Gianforte will likely be sworn in around June 6 or so, which is when Congress gets its lazy butt back in session.

Again, something I don’t much care to think on.

For now, just focus on having a good holiday and a wonderful start to summer!

3 Comments

Well, She’s Finally Over

5/25/2017

4 Comments

Another MT sunset

Well, the campaign’s finally over.

We can rest.

But let’s do a little rehashing and explaining and some good ol’ shootin’ the shit first.

It’s a lot better than crying into our beer.

Around 9:30 PM it was Gianforte ahead by 5%, or about 10,000 votes.

He was up in Yellowstone County by 20%.

There’s no recovering from that.

Things got real quiet on #mtpol after that, which is where most of the political news in Montana happens first.

Around 10 PM Gianforte was up by 20,000 votes and people were wondering where he’d make that up.

And then that was it.

Some more counties, some more numbers, but the trends remained the same.

At 10:33 PM the Associated Press called the race for Gianforte. The Flathead Beacon followed quickly thereafter, and other sites soon followed.

So that was it.

Here’s how I have the most populous counties coming in:

So Gianforte won it.

I don’t know if that was a surprise to many, though many acted like Quist could win right down to the end.

That’s admirable.

I can’t fault them too much – after the body-slamming incident, the assault charge, and the social media and national news uproar, it seemed like Quist might win.

But he didn’t.

Rob Quist now joins a long line of failed candidates:

2016: Denise Juneau, 41%
2014: John Lewis, 40%
2012: Kim Gillan, 43%
2010: Dennis McDonald, 34%
2008: John Driscoll, 32%
2006: Monica Lindeen, 39%
2004: Tracy Valazquez, 33%
2002: Steve Kelly, 33%
2000: Nancy Keenan, 47%
1998: Dusty Deschamps, 44%
1996: Bill Yellowtail, 43%

You have to go back to 1994 for the last time a Democrat won this seat, Pat Williams with 49% of the vote against Republican Cy Janison’s 42% and Independent Steve Kelly’s 9%.

23 years.

That’s a long time.

Three days before the election a Gravitas poll came out showing Gianforte ahead by 14%, with a sample size of 818 people.

Democrats and Republicans both seemed to act as though their internal polling said otherwise, however.

Lots of last-minute campaign stops, lots of phone calls and door knocking and especially social media ‘outreach.’

When it comes to the latter, much of it was just out-of-staters assaulting us with spam.

And let’s not forget the constant deluge of radio and TV ads.

Over $17 million was spent on this election, and if you had a TV you damn-well knew it.

For many Montana voters, the end of the race couldn’t come quickly enough.

On Wednesday, Jackie Browne over at Western Word called the race.

Those numbers were similar to the ones I’d been talking about for nearly two weeks.

Here are both predictions:

We also had “old political hand” Joe Lamson give us a prediction of Quist 49%, Gianforte 48%, and Wicks 3%...if turnout on Thursday remained low.

I’ve never heard of Joe Lamson, myself, but maybe that’s just me.

Mainly, if you were living in the state, had been following politics for some time, and paid close attention to this race and its spending, then you knew Quist was done just weeks after he got the nomination.

I said as much at the end of March.

There was just too much negative news about him.

Yeah, Gianforte has his negatives too, but we’d heard all those before, endlessly, for months and months during the gubernatorial race last year.

Time and a defeat had taken the sting out of Gianforte.

Quist, however, remained an untested unknown…and one that proved to have more baggage than any of us could have imagined.

Remember, I pushed hard for Quist on this site after Schweitzer came out and endorsed him.

Another big factor was Quist calling me up on the phone in mid-January to talk about his chances.

This was all back before March 5, when he got the nomination. I’m not sure if that’s the day the Hilltop Public Solutions crowd that effectively controls the Montana Democratic Party got its hooks into him, but it happened nonetheless.

That was really the death-knell.

At that point the Quist campaign became nothing more than an opportunity to train Tester ’18 staffers while ensuring they had quite the little nest egg built up to see them through the summer and into the full-time Election 2018 cycle come fall.

Don’t forget, Quist’s staffers were set to make $68,000 by the end of the campaign according to the FEC reports we dug into in April…and that was before they added even more staff – and boosted the pay of current staff – as we saw in the May FEC reports.

And then there was the out-of-state spending, which dwarfed the in-state spending…the latter mainly comprised of gas, meals, and lodging, as well as a few office supplies and other miscellaneous things.

That in no way compares to the mega-bucks that were spent in places like D.C., California, and Georgia for advertising, website work, social media campaigns, and all the rest of it that made our lives a living hell for the past couple of weeks.

Remember, $17 million was spent in this race, or about $200,000 a day.

We looked at the Super PAC money, too. Hardly any of that spending benefited Montana businesses or families.

To me, that’s not how you should run a campaign.

I’d have liked to see Quist spend more money with in-state firms…many of which we looked-up in a post I did on winning a statewide campaign.

We need to realize that election cycles are near-constant, and that the money they toss about is an economic stimulus to our state…or should be.

I would have liked to see Quist use fewer out-of-state staffers and more native Montanans, people that will stay here and use the experience they gained on this campaign to help future campaigns.

And when I say ‘future campaigns’ I mean those in the state, not in other states, which is where many of these non-native staffers will eventually end up.

It really is a game of musical chairs when it comes to professional Democratic staffers, with them moving from this state to that state based on what their D.C. handlers say.

This in no way benefits Montana or Montana campaigns.

If it did, how come Rob Quist lost tonight?

So where to from here?

I’m sure there will be lots of silence and recriminating looks for a few days, then the blame game can begin.

Perhaps we’ll even start to speculate on who’ll run against Gianforte in 2018.

My money’s on Curtis, but now that Gianforte’s ‘so vulnerable’ in Democrats’ eyes, maybe they’ll try to throw a safer, establishment type at him, one that’ll play the same D.C.-money game that Quist fell into.

I see Zeno Baucus making a serious challenge in 2018, with the talk this year just a testing of the waters.

Perhaps Kelly McCarthy will be back, or even Dirk Adams. I don’t think Dan West can do it an in open primary.

Anyways, plenty of time to speculate on this later.

We all know that the main impetus will be on getting Tester reelected in ’18 anyways, so that’s where the focus (and the money) will be at.

Beating Gianforte will be second fiddle, and I really do think that by that point Gianforte will be a national star.

Yeah, because he roughed-up a reporter.

Many will eat that up. He could become one of the most powerful members of the House.

Or one of the most ineffective…we’ll see.

Effectiveness is quite subjective. If you’re making tax loopholes for the rich and looking after the wellbeing of corporations, well, that’s the kind of ‘effectiveness’ that’s rewarded with campaign cash…which Gianforte doesn’t really need anyways.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Montana Republican Party dances around the assault issue. Remember, Gianforte’s opponent last June nabbed 24% of the GOP primary vote.

Many have already said that Gianforte’s long-term career is done, and that may be so. I don’t see him going against Tester or for the governor’s office anymore.

And what about Quist?

Well, I hope he runs for the legislature. We could use a good Democrat up that way.

Hell, Montana could use good Democrats everywhere!

The Party is in serious trouble, something that Logicosity pointed out today.

I hope you’ll give that post a look, and think a lot about what we can do to fix this terrible losing streak.

Dems haven’t won this seat in 23 years.

It’s time to figure out a new strategy.

4 Comments

Gianforte Body Slam Open Post

5/24/2017

24 Comments

Note: There are 3+ updates at the bottom of this post.
Special Note: This is the 700th post on this Montana blog.

I’m getting a lot of emails from people asking me what I think.

Well, this is a hot story.

Boy, and what a story it is!

I mean, Gianforte body-slamming a Guardian reporter?

That was just one of the strange twists to hit the last 24 hours of this 2017 Montana special election for the U.S. House seat vacated by Ryan Zinke on March 1.

So let’s do an open post where you can say whatever the hell you want.

I have to admit, when I first heard the Gianforte body-slam come on Fox radio national news tonight at 8 PM I thought it had to be Quist.

Quist seemed to me like the only one that would be frustrated.

Hey, I figured he’d lose and perhaps he did too!

But it was Gianforte that had all this pent-up emotion and frustration, it seems, and boy did he let it out in Bozeman tonight!

While the left and out-of-staters view this as bad, many in Montana will like it

Remember, Gianforte didn’t have an election night shindig scheduled for tomorrow night like Quist does here in Missoula.

This was it – Gianforte's last stop on his 7-city tour that he started very early this morning.

He didn’t have a lot of numbers – I saw images of the stop in Missoula today of about 25 GOP die-hards but that’s it.

Greg Gianforte talking to Missoula Republicans on the morning of May 24

Maybe he was just wore out.

It’s really hard to argue with Fox News reporters that saw this unfold, however.

So I’m hearing that the sheriff should press charges for assault at the least, if not battery.

But then we also know that the sheriff of Gallatin County gave $250 to Gianforte’s campaign just two months ago.

Old-time Montana reporter John Adams came out of the woodwork to tell us that one.

When it was just the Guardian story it sounded to me like Gianforte had a phone waved in his face (assault), went to bat it away (defending himself) and the reporter grabbed his wrist (battery).

That’s how he’ll play it tomorrow, if he just doesn’t lie low altogether.

Twitter is lighting up with gleeful people. I'd like to think this won't have an effect, but we'll see.

This is the left's chance to have their media nab the election for Quist.

Many want the Lee Newspapers in Montana to change their endorsement of Gianforte.

Well, they go home when they put up the next day’s edition, which happens at 8 PM.

Are they still in their offices mulling this over, ready to do some rewriting for tomorrow?

Maybe, we’ll see.

Mostly, when Fox News is the witness to it, then you're in trouble.

I bet the Congressional Leadership Fund (CLF) and the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) are trying to spin this for tomorrow, and you know what, it might work.

I think many voters will be happy Gianforte attacked those 'damn, liberal, East Coast reporters.'

Lots of votes have been cast already, and James Conner of Flathead Memo gave us the absentee ballot return rates by county in a nice chart.

I still think Gianforte will win this.

I don’t see Gianforte being arrested tonight or tomorrow.

I do see Gianforte laying low at his home in Bozeman with his high-priced lawyers on speed-dial…should the need arise.

I’m sure he’s called several of them already.

Mostly, if he holds tight – and if the police and the sheriff don’t do anything – then he can still win.

I don’t see this driving up turnout a whole lot in places like Missoula.

I do see lots of Republicans that were on the fence about Gianforte (the 24% that voted for Nelson last June) coming out to support him tomorrow.

Or would they rather have a 'dope-smoking hippie' representing them?

I don’t think so.

So like I said, this could actually help Gianforte…or at least get him over the top.

Or those voters that were only leaning-Gianforte could now go to Libertarian Mark Wicks.

Boy, anything is possible and there’s really no way to tell!

Like I said, this is an open post so feel free to comment or vent or cheer or whatever.

And please, vote tomorrow if you haven’t done so already.

It’s set to be an exciting Thursday in the Treasure State. Hang on to your hats.

May 25 Updates
9 AM

So it’s the morning after and here we are.

I went ahead and put my Rob Quist sign back out.

I’m on a busy street in Missoula, so we’ll see. I can’t do much else today to help out, so this is it.

Yes, I’d like Rob Quist to win.

At the same time I’m very hesitant about a Rob Quist win.

You’ve seen his spending, you’ve seen his staff…is this man capable of thinking and acting for himself when he gets to Congress…if he gets to congress?

I’m still not convinced that this Gianforte assault incident is going to win Rob the election.

We know that if Rob does win, it’ll only be due to this incident.

Or am I wrong on that?

Many of us figured that Quist was done until 8 PM last night.

So there’s a lot to process today, a lot to think about, and many of us have already voted.

I’ll keep you updated as the day progresses, and my post-election post will be up tonight around 10 or 11 or maybe even midnight…we’ll see how long it takes to get those results in.

Thanks for reading.

Update
9:45 AM

NBC has a story about 3 possible outcomes for this special election that's worth a look. Two of them have Gianforte winning, one by a little and one by a lot.

I see that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said Gianforte should apologize, but that Montana should vote for who they think is best.

So there will be no reprimand from the House now or if Gianforte gets in.

This is a huge green light for the Gianforte campaign, and a signal that things will be alright.

The real test already came last night with the citation. It wasn't a felony, only a misdemeanor.

Update
11:05 AM

Now one of the Fox News reporters is changing their story, saying Gianforte may not have grabbed the reporter by the neck.

Fox News reporter changes her Gianforte neck-grab story

So who is Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna...and does she have an agenda?

I see she did cover a lot of Democratic political events. I dunno...smells funny to me.

24 Comments

Why I’m Extremely Confident

5/23/2017

2 Comments

The Smith River

I just gotta tell you…I feel extremely confident about our future.

Yeah, the country’s going straight to hell and has been for some time.

Yeah, the Democrats are no better than the Republicans no matter how much we lie to ourselves that they are.

Yeah, jobs are shit and pay is crummy and getting benefits is rarer than seeing a two-horned unicorn.

Despite all that, I feel extremely confident.

Why?

Simple – change.

It’s the only constant.

You might remember a post I put up last June that had this image at the end:

I like that quote, because it reminds us that the things we view as weak – water and often ourselves – are quite strong and quite capable of wearing down, destroying, and ultimately changing those things that are strong – rock and the status quo.

Yeah, it takes time.

But it happens. And when you get up each day and work at it and press on no matter the adversities before you, that change becomes inevitable.

So I’m extremely confident about things today, and I’d like to use that confidence to frame some of the foreign policy issues we’ll talk about.

The Trump Arms Deal

Let’s begin in the Middle East.

Trump is on a 9-day whirlwind tour, one that’s already netted Saudi Arabia $350 billion in arms deals over the next ten years.

This is the country that attacked us on 9/11.

Hey, that's what the courts told us, and that’s why families can sue the Saudis…something they want Trump to stop.

So Saudi Arabia attacked us but the media lied about it and the American sheeple are in the dark.

This is not surprising, nor is it surprising that it’s continued.

The American media sure didn’t tell it to ya, but in 2012 the Smith-Mundt Act was overturned.

This was passed in 1948 to ensure that the American government never used propaganda against its own people, like so many countries in WWII had been doing.

Now it’s perfectly legal for our government and our media to lie to us.

What’s also not surprising is the fact that the shadow government pretty much hijacked the Trump presidency.

Dick Cheney was lashing out at Russia at the end of March.

Paul Wolfowitz came out of the woodwork at the end of April to praise the Syrian bombings we conducted.

Henry Kissinger showed up in the Oval Office in mid-May to “discuss Russia and other matters.”

These people don’t just show up on accident.

It’s all part of the plan, one put forth in the early-90s to radically change the world, keep the petrodollar secure, and ensure American hegemony for another generation or two.

No matter who’s president, the plan will continue – American domination of the Middle East and its resources, the pegging of those resources to our fiat currency, and the threat of war if nations don’t play ball.

Don’t ever forget – the only reason the world hates us so much is because of these policies, policies which have come about through our 30-year occupation of the Middle East via our proxies or our ability to overthrow whomever we want whenever we want, damn the consequences.

But back to the massive arms deal.

It starts with $110 billion right away, and Israel will get the same deal.

The reasons are simple – Iran has to be put in its place.

By selling hundreds of billions in arms to these two genocide-inducing countries, America thinks it’ll keep Iran from getting the bomb.

If I was Iran I’d be doing everything in my power to get the bomb.

Hell, the most dangerous country in the world just sold my neighbors tons of weapons!

So it’ll be interesting to see what happens.

Most of this goes back to the mid-1970s when America and Saudi Arabia colluded to force the rest of the world to use the petrodollar.

For the past 40 years America has used that currency as a blunt weapon to force other nations to do what it wants.

That time is quickly coming to an end, however.

The reason?

Russia and China.

For years now we’ve been seeing the two countries build up their gold stocks as they move away from western banks and to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB.

Now we’re seeing the Chinese beginning their gold mining plans in Siberia, which should net them 15 tons of the metal each year.

It’ll be one of the largest gold mines in the world and will only strengthen the AIIB.

I’d say in another year or so neither China nor Russia will have to use the petrodollar.

Yep, they're going back to the gold standard while America desperately clings to its self-created 'oil standard' via the petrodollar.

How many countries will join Russia and China once they make that announcement is unknown, but we do know that 52 nations are members of the bank and 25 more want to join.

America will never recover from this.

For 40 years we’ve told the world what to do, our only leverage being the petrodollar currency we force the world to use.

When the world has a choice all of a sudden, what do you think will happen?

Well, as we see…many countries will switch over. America will do everything in its power to ensure this doesn’t happen, including war and I have no doubt, nuclear war.

Most people simply don’t understand that the petrodollar is America’s only real bludgeon.

When that’s gone, so is everything else.

Conclusion

Lots to be confident about, huh?

I think so.

First of all, the American petrodollar will eventually come to an end, and with it America’s slave-like hold on the rest of the word.

Next, boosted military spending that has no benefit for common Americans will become so top-heavy that it can do nothing but cave-in on itself.

Then, America’s military is so weak and so overstretched that we won’t be wasting anymore American blood in possible wars with China or Russia or Iran or North Korea.

Finally, Americans simply can’t give anymore.

It’s that last one I like the most.

My government can keep asking me for more, but I’ve got nothing to give.

I’m wore out, broke, and busted. It’s clear to me and millions of others that my country doesn’t care about me.

Just look at veterans – 2 a day kill themselves. Their war has never ended.

Most Americans are the same. We’re tired and we don’t want to take it anymore.

Our pay has been stagnant for 30 years and no matter what the government says or does, nothing ever changes.

Jobs are shit and pay is crummy and getting benefits is rarer than, well…you know.

Rock bottom?

I’d say we’re pretty damn close.

Our country continues to fall apart and now we see in Trump’s new $4 trillion budget that even food stamps are being cut by 25% in favor of increased military spending.

How does that benefit you?

It doesn't. Please remember that there is no greater direct, economic stimulus for Montana than food stamps...as we discussed over a year ago.

Personally, I’d rather America spends its money feeding Americans, not selling weapons to a country that bombed two huge towers in New York 16 years ago.

Alas, that’s not part of the plan.

Frustrating, ain’t it?

Well, to me it just makes me confident.

How long can this charade continue?

How long will Americans put up with it?

How long can they put up with it?

I’m sure that are lots of people doing just fine, able to buy our $255,000-average homes here in Missoula, maybe even save for retirement while getting the kids through school.

Most of us can’t do that, however.

So the inevitable will happen – the top-heavy corrupt form of governmental policies that we have now will cave-in on themselves or topple over or just fade away.

No one can come to your house and make you get up in the morning to go to work, and soon America will no longer be able to make its people care about its missteps and dark adventures around the world, and how this supposedly ‘benefits’ them.

Americans are starting to wake up, and our old form of blind patriotism is giving way to a kind of weary and indifferent resentment.

The country wasn’t supposed to be like this, life wasn’t supposed to be like this!

Trump’s whirlwind tour of the Middle East benefits you and your family not at all, but it does benefit the 1% of the 1% that control this country and the world.

Aren’t you sick of them?

I sure am, and most people are just like me.

And that’s why I feel extremely confident.

The pendulum swings, the world turns, the seasons change.

And that river just keeps on flowin’, while the rock it destroys just stands there and takes it.

It’s amazing how unmoving and how unresponsive that rock is, isn’t it?

Don’t worry – it won’t be there forever.

2 Comments

Helena Hodgepodge

5/21/2017

4 Comments

I’m in Helena today to celebrate my son’s 6th birthday.

Isn’t it great being young?

You love getting older.

I think that lasts until about the age of 21 and then it starts to fade. After that you don’t have any real birthday milestones to look forward to.

Well, I know a lot of older people – like my parents – that can’t wait to hit 65 so they can get Social Security and Medicare.

So 21 and 65…two ages Montanans really look forward to.

Anyways, let’s discuss a few things today that are a bit off-the-beaten-path.

There is a Helena Issues section on this blog, with 13 posts going back to March 2015.

Remember, I’m from Helena originally and my family has lived here since the 1880s.

Some of the Helena posts that stand out to me are:

I like that Gallery of Outstanding Montanans post.

I profiled that Capitol plaque about 2 years ago.

Just .003% of the state’s current population is on that list.

To me, that’s really something to aspire to – getting your name on that list.

It means you were a big help to the state.

An even smaller list is those that have had an Indian in full-headdress regalia attend their funeral.

Just two Montanans that I know of have had this honor: Senator Thomas Walsh and Helena’s John Quigley.

This gets back to the idea I was pushing in my post this month called If You Died Tomorrow.

What are you doing to get your name on that gallery list, or to get the state’s tribes to appreciate you?

Chances are you’re not doing anything in that department. And chances are good that when you’re gone, no one will much care and you’ll be forgotten.

So think about that.

We had 5% of Missoula turn out for the Bernie Sanders/Rob Quist rally yesterday, or 4,000 people.

People lining up to see Bernie in May 2017

The May 2017 Bernie Sanders Rally in Missoula

8% of Butte showed up to see them, or 3,000 people.

Good for them.

Back in May 2016 we had 9,000 show up in Missoula to see Bernie, yet just 44% of the county turned out to vote that June.

Sure, Bernie won that primary, but come November just 74% of Montanans turned out to vote and we saw that Trump won the state with 57% of the vote.

So I’m a little skeptical on what these rallies can accomplish.

In about 108 hours we’ll start to see the special election results come in.

It’ll be a rough night for Democrats.

And hey – maybe I’m completely wrong.

Maybe Rob Quist will win this thing!

I just don’t see that happening, however.

Getting into some smaller news stories…

I see that the nuclear reactor site 400 miles to the west of us is now leaking radioactive material, some of which was found on a worker’s clothing.

Meanwhile, Montana is expected to have a 375% increase in wind energy jobs by 2020.

And that’s it, folks. I don’t have anything else to say.

(Which really means ‘get ready for several more paragraphs’).

We’ll get up to the 700th post on this Montana blog in just a few days.

That’s a good feeling.

I wonder if I thought I’d make it that far when I started this site back in 2013 in China.

Anyways, here we are…discussing politics and how we can make this state better.

A lot has changed since I started doing that.

Back in 2013 Max Baucus was still our ranking senator, Daines was our sole U.S. House rep, and Bullock was just a few months into his first term.

Ted Dick was still the executive director of the Montana Democratic Party and Jim Elliot still hadn’t lost his chairman position to Nancy Anderson.

Back in May 2013 the Montana Democratic Party brought in $54,000 in donations. Fast forward to May 2017 and they’re brining in $223,000.

So lots of things have changed.

I think I’ve changed a lot too.

Back in 2014 when I got serious about running for office I still worried about sucking-up, saying the right things, and not offending people.

Today I could give a shit about that stuff.

I think I’ve offended most everyone, but nothing much has happened because of this.

For me, Deng Xiaoping is one to look up to.

The Chinaman was born in 1904, educated in France in the ‘20s, and took part in the Long March in 1934-35.

He rose up to the Communist Party’s Secretary General in the 1950s but was eventually purged from the Party in 1966 at the start of the Cultural Revolution as he was too capitalist for Mao Zedong.

After two high-level leaders died, however – Lin Biao and Zhou Enlai – Deng was one of the only ones left with experience and he was brought back.

That was in 1974, Mao’s power was slipping as his health declined, and the Gang of Four – which was led by Mao’s wife – began to chastise Deng, as they saw him as the ultimate threat to their power.

Deng was purged once again, but then in September 1976 Mao died, in October the Gang of Four was purged, and in 1977 Deng was brought back.

By 1980 he’d consolidated his power and became the leader of China until 1992 when he retired.

He died in 1997, and if he hadn’t lived it’s unlikely that China would be what it is today, a strong competitor and trade partner with the US.

Without outspoken and strong-willed people like Deng Xiaoping, China would still be an agricultural backwater that the rest of the world laughs at.

Seeing parallels between Montana?

Well, I hope so…but if not, oh well.

And hey – have yourself a super Sunday!

4 Comments

The May Finance Report for Montana Democrats

5/20/2017

2 Comments

The May Monthly FEC report for the Montana Democratic Party is 117 pages long.

It covers the period April 1 to April 30.

Just a reminder before we get started…

$20,000 was paid out in salary to the 8 staffers in February.
$780 was spent on meals in February.

The Montana Democratic Party had $143,000 cash on hand at the beginning of March.

$26,000 was paid out in salary to the 8 staffers in March
$37,000 was spent on payroll taxes for those people
$49,000 was spent on the Mansfield-Metcalf Dinner
$9,500 was spent on meals in March

At the beginning of April the Party had $245,000 cash on hand.

So let’s get started for that month.

The Party received $223,000 in donations in April.

We know the Party took $17,500 from PACs.

They also got $104,000 in transfers from other committees.

The Party paid out $272,000 in April as well.

Coordinated Party expenditures total $95,000 for the month.

By the end of the month they had $196,000 left.

An interesting expenditure that I can’t quite identify happened on April 5.

We saw that $25,000 was transferred to the “MDP Nonfed account – James Messina excessive portion.”

I’d like to mention that we get into Schedule E Itemized Independent Expenditures on page 67 of the report.

I’m going to group both Schedule B and E to make things easier.

Here are some other things that stood out to me:

$95,000 to D.C.'s Canal Media Partners for ads supporting Quist
$35,000 with D.C.’s Hart Research Associates for polling
$5,500 to D.C.'s DSPolitical for digital advertising opposing Gianforte
$4,900 with the Billings Times for advertising
$3,500 to D.C.’s New Blue Interactive for donor development
$2,500 with Virginia’s Direct Connect for credit card fees
$687 was spent on meals in April

All of that stuff comes to $147,000.

Let's break it down further:

$139,000 spent in D.C.
$4,900 spent in Billings
$3,500 spent in Virginia
$687 spent in Helena

I’m glad to see that spending on meals has gone down, at least.

Still…I wonder.

For instance, $113 was spent at the Silver Star Steak Company for “donor development,” but I think that’s an example of foisting a food expense off onto something else.

I also noticed that there were tons of administrative office supply purchases.

I wonder if this might be an area to hide things…I dunno.

It's also worth mentioning that most office supplies seem to be bought off of Amazon. Again, so much for supporting local businesses.

What seems obvious to me at least is that the Montana Democratic Party’s primary function – according to the three FEC reports we’ve dug into this year – is to keep staff salaries high while returning little in the way of concrete election results.

$38,200 was spent paying 11 staffers in April.

$55,750 was spent on payroll taxes for those staffers.

$8,300 was spent on health insurance for them.

That came to over $102,000 to keep those people employed for April.

Here’s how those salaries break down per individual:

Nancy Keenan: $5,922
Amanda Frickle: $5,023
Chris Meagher: $4,732
Allison Dale-Riddle: $4,563
Trent Bolger: $4,453
Kristen Cates: $3,334
Justin Ailport: $3,103
Nick Lockridge: $2,986
John Fauerbach: $1,987
James Young: $1,886
James Oberembt: $115.45

Chris Meagher is a new face, having been hired in March.

He's a Michigan-native that came over from the Colorado Democratic Party, which he worked for from April to November last year. Before that he was a communications manager with GM and a congressional staffer before that.

Chris Meagher, Montana

We know that salary expense for the Montana Democratic Party was $20,000 in February, $26,000 in March and now for April it was $38,000.

Their salaries are going up, despite the monumental losses the Montana Democrats suffered in the statewide races in 2016.

Their salaries are going up despite the abysmal performance of Rob Quist in the special election race.

I wonder if their salaries will continue to go up when Quist loses in 5 days.

But maybe he’ll win, and that question won’t be asked.

If I worked at Helena’s Sixth Street Democratic Party headquarters I’d be hoping to hell that Quist wins on Thursday.

For if he doesn’t, what does that say about the Party and their efforts…and what they’re spending money on?

Sadly, I’m the only person in the state that’s openly asking this question.

For three months now I’ve been charting the Party’s spending, hoping that people will begin to wake up as to what’s going on.

And what is going on?

Regular, hardworking Democratic voters in Montana are being taken for a ride.

Will regular Democratic Party committee men and women learn about this and vote for new leadership this summer?

I hope so, but I’m not confident.

No, it’ll probably be business as usual going into and beyond 2018.

And the losses will continue to rack up.

2 Comments

Frustrations with Rural Montana Democratic Committee Meetings

5/19/2017

1 Comment

I got this synopsis of the recent Lake County Democrat’s Committee Meeting and was encouraged to share it.

Lake County, Montana

Greg, I don't know if you can use any of this. Sorry if it’s rambling as it was upsetting to me.

The convention was to start at 7pm at the Polson Library meeting room with a meet-and-greet first.

I arrived at 6:45 and was greeted warmly by two ladies and asked to sign in who I was, name tag, etc.

I knew no one in the room as this was my first meeting with this group.

AT 7 everyone had taken a seat. I counted and there was exactly 40, evenly divided between men and women.

I am 69. Half the room was 60 and up, the rest 50 to 60 with no one under 40. When it came to hair, very gray and all white.

In the meet-and-greet a lady 65-70 gave an introduction to me as vice chairman and asked whom I was and from which town. After giving my info she responded, “Oh the chairman has been trying to get a hold of you and you must be hard to get.”

I didn't respond, knowing the chairman had my number and e-mail so knew that wasn't true. He had even tried to contact me.

The vice chairman started the meeting with an announcement that the chairman was in Texas getting treatment for cancer and would have to have surgery, chemo and radiation treatment. The chairman I knew is also in their 60's but I was not aware of this info.

She then read the agenda and turned the meeting over to a man she called by his first name. He gave no info on who he was. He read some info on duties of precincts and list of precinct men and women.

Lake County has 20 precincts which means 40 positions. The democrats have 17 positions open, or 42%.

I was surprised I was on the list for Ronan 2 which I guess the chairman appointed me but I was never informed. When the agenda was handed out a ballot was included.

On the pre-printed ballot all present officers were listed as well as a list of present state committee persons.

I asked the gentleman who now seemed to be running the meeting how the lists on the ballot came about. He stated I believe the chairman asked them.

So I assumed there was no nomination committee. One gentleman who knew Roberts Rules stated, “I think motions are needed to nominate.”

At this point I asked the question, “Do you think the present chairman will be able to carry out his duties with all the cancer issues considering this a 2 year term which runs into next election cycle?”

I was immediately attacked by several people. Their responses were, “He works so hard, has done so much to build the local party, not putting him back in office will kill him and he will know when to quit.”

I explained I was not attacking him in any way but had been a nurse. I knew how hard chemo and radiation can be on the body and how it takes your strength away. I wanted to know if a plan was in hand to carry-on and was the vice chairman up to stepping up. I just let that go as I could see it was going nowhere.

I could have pointed out in my very long conversation with the chairman in late-March.

He stated to me he really didn't know much about Montana politics but was just learning. I could of pointed out if he was doing such a great job why in the last county primary did no democrats run like in the sheriff race where 7 filed all on GOP, none on the democrat side. Why have we not had a democrat county commissioner in last 19 years?

But the vice chairman was anxious to move on to the election. So I nominated all present officers. When nominations ceased I asked the gentleman doing the election if it was true only county officers can vote at state convention come June. I already knew that was so. But he agreed.

So then I stated that I was going to put the officers on the spot. I would like to know their views about the job the Executive Committee and Nancy Keenan were doing.

There was a long silence.

The vice chair stated, “We really aren't here for that.”

I then stated that I felt Keenan and the whole board needed to be replaced.

I went on to state, “How is it we lost 4 0f 5 major state offices, we lost a US Senate seat the democrats held for 50 years, we have not won the US Congress seat in 20 years, how is it we went from a 50-50 Montana House to a 59 GOP 41 democrat? I don't see any of that as a success under this leadership.”

One of the local officers turned toward me and said, “One year we elected 10 democrats and put their pictures up.” I had no idea what she was talking about or when.

Finally the vice chairman said she would respond. She said she felt Keenan was doing a good job, is a loyal democrat, works hard, is a fine woman and has built the party.

I immediately responded to that as I stated, “Why were there only 26 county committees and none in rural areas where Quist went out and built new ones in 7 counties and that’s how he got the nomination?”

But the vice chair stated she will support Keenan in June. I already knew where the absent chairman stood from my March talk with him. He also thought Keenan did a good job and wasn't really her fault we lost all those offices as it was just a hard year and we did win the Governor’s race.

The other officers refused to comment on Keenan’s job and were very quiet. I think they were shocked by the statements.

One man that had come in that I didn't notice spoke up. He stated he was a tribal attorney and gave his name. I noted on the ballot he was listed as the state county committeeman. He actually may be under 40. He stated that he did tribal lobbying last legislative session.

He stated he had been asked to be a committeeman and was new to politics but had meet Keenan in Helena during the 2017 session and found her helpful and a pleasant lady so he was also going to support her, which I found interesting knowing so little about her and democrat politics.

I know I will sound politically incorrect here but feel he is their token Indian and knowing little of the game will follow where the officers lead. I think I could convince him different with facts.

So there are 6 votes for Keenan with the group from Lake County. We did vote for officers, though I don’t know know why as only people on ballot but vice chair had no idea how to run meeting by Roberts Rule.

They did not announce results but just said same officers won. I didn't vote for them. One lady said she felt some change needed to happen in Helena as no one at party headquarters answers the phone nor returns calls.

I found it interesting only 2 of all the officeholders had the guts to state their opinion. I only became aware that there were maybe 6-7 Bernie Sanders supporters there when one lady pointed out change of venue in Missoula and vice chair pointed out how vocal the lady had been for Sanders.

The Sanders group sat together but said nothing in Keenan discussion which I didn't understand due to the fact how Keenan was a big Hillary supporter and screwed them over.

I saw hardly any enthusiasm for Quist there.

I recall maybe 4 people wearing a Quist pin. There was no Quist literature nor any plan for a rally or get out the vote efforts. One man spoke for Quist. He is a long time friend of Quist and lives in Kalispell.

I stayed calm and presented facts but felt no one listened or cared. It felt more like a social gathering among long-time friends, not a meeting on how to change the message to maybe win.

A democrat representative from the area gave a short talk about how terrible it felt to have ever single democrat bill voted down. I doubt he runs again, has health issues and being in the minority is terrible. He also stated the dems didn’t get to sit on any committees they wanted to be on.

He was honest in that he doesn't see it getting any better for democrats next election either. Someone asked him how he got elected in such a red county. He said, "I talk to republicans, not just democrats."

After the meeting four different ladies came up to me and said I was a rabble rouser, but two said it was needed. I don't view myself that way but just as a person that has a different point of view from the status quo, and with facts to back my view point.

The vice chair kept her distance from me after the meeting and of course did not thank me for coming. In fact my precinct committee woman said to me after the meeting, “Well do you still want to do this?”

I said why not. I guess they want me to fade away because I didn't hear what I wanted. I have a thick skin and I have been in campaigns since 1968.

Two ladies with Quist pins on asked me what I thought of Quist’s chances. I said he will lose by at least 10%. They both agreed and both stated the Quist campaign has been run horribly.

I knew why there was little support for Quist in the room as I knew the officers had voted for Curtis every ballot in March. I also realized the next day why they support Keenan as well.

The officers were all Hillary supporters and the women fit the Hillary demographics of older, white women. And since Keenan was a Hillary person they feel they can't see another woman kicked out.

These women are also big abortion-rights supporters and that of course fits right in with Keenan’s views, since she was big with NARAL Pro-Choice for so many years.

During the meeting one lady insisted the reason democrats are losing is due to Citizens United.

She tried to make untrue statements that democrats can't raise dark money. Well, I guess she didn't check out Hillary's funding.

I really see little difference in the two parties as both don't believe in the facts right in front of their noses. I guess I will find out very little about what is going on in the Lake County Democrat Party as I don't think my phone will be ringing to invite me to their functions.

Keenan will easily get re-elected and the losing will continue.

-Dennis Flagen

1 Comment

What Might Have Been

5/16/2017

9 Comments

March 5

Amanda Curtis’s husband left a comment on my site a few days back and it’s quite interesting.

As you know, one of the main questions I always asked during the run-up to the special nominating convention was always, ‘If she couldn’t win in 2014 how’s she gonna win in 2017?’

No one had an answer for that.

A couple days ago, however, Kevin Curtis did have an answer for that.

He said that Amanda’s “entire campaign strategy would have been totally different.”

This would include:

Lots of Republican outreach
Revolutionary use of social media to speak directly to Montanans
Great ideas for legislation
The use of Montana-based media firms and production companies
A clear, positive vision for Montana’s future

That vision would be something people could rally around and be proud of, unlike the personal attacks we so often see Dems use.

Supposedly Amanda had “an army of over 800 motivated volunteers signed up and ready to go on day one.”

Besides that the DCCC “had pledged their full support” as did the groups Brand New Congress, Young Turks, and a few progressive Bernie groups.

Those groups supposedly contacted Amanda before the convention and pledged their support.

She was looking at contributions of “$5 million in just the first 20 days” with $1 million pledged on day one.

As of yesterday, Rob Quist has raised $3.2 million over a period of 70 days or so.

Amanda Curtis might have had $15 million raised by this point.

I guess we’ll never know.

I see that Hillary is launching a new political group supporting the Trump “resistance.”

NBC, or what we might better term as Nonsense & Bull Crap, had the story.

The group is called Onward Together, it wants your email address, a money donation, and to advance “the vision that earned nearly 66 million votes in the last election.”

66 million votes, or 20.5% of the country.

The other 80% of us don’t give a fuck.

Well, that’s not quite true – probably 50% aren’t even paying attention and the other 30% support Trump.

Sure, Trump only had 19.6% of the country vote for him but he won.

That’s what this Hillary group is about – sour grapes.

They’ll do all they can to delegitimize Trump, peg him to the Russians, and call for an impeachment.

They’ll shout in the streets about the FBI director, foam at the mouth over abortion rights, and take as much money from Wall Street as they can get.

They’ll call names, point fingers, and do just about everything aside from talking about the issues that everyone but the 20% of the country that voted for Hillary cares about.

Loud and vocal minority? Yes.

One that’s going to make any kind of substantive changes in your life? No.

James Conner over at Flathead Memo calls Hillary an “angel of political death” and encourages Dems that want to win in ’18 to stay away from her.

And hey…maybe even Howard Dean will be involved with Hillary’s new group.

Ain’t that special?

Thankfully for Hillary the group has been organized as a 501(c)4 non-profit, meaning that it won’t need to disclose its donors, nor will it be hindered by limitations on campaign contributions.

Nope, Hillary’s new Onward Together group isn’t a PAC.

It’s a dark money group.

That’s what national Democrats stand for now.

And my goodness watch out for Hillary and her cronies!

Two losses in a row and she’ll do everything in her power to make sure there’s not a third.

God help us.

As I think about Hillary and the FBI my thoughts can’t help but go to Anthony Weiner and Huma Abedin.

What ever happened with those two star-crossed lovers?

Well, back in March it was reported that the two were still together, and living together 80% to 90% of the time.

We also learned at the beginning of May that Abedin would not be charged for sending those classified emails to Weiner.

I haven’t been able to find anything recent on Weiner’s sexting to a teen and what penalties he might have to pay for that.

Back in February it was reported he might have to face hard time, possibly 15 years behind bars.

They might be able to get him just 5 years for child porn, however.

Remember, these are the people that want to ‘help’ Hillary run the country.

Nancy Keenan is blasting national Democrats because they “don’t know Montana.”

She has no problem taking their money, however.

Well…that’s not quite accurate. You’ll remember that in February the MT Dems actually transferred $25,000 of their money to the national Democrats.

Why?

That’s a very, very good question.

Anyways, it seems that ‘important’ Democrats back East are wondering why any money at all is being ‘wasted’ on this Montana special election.

They think Quist’s chances are “razor-thin at best.”

One of the things I simply can’t understand is why Quist wasn’t vetted.

If reporters can dig up old tax and rental unit information, why can’t the highly-paid Helena Dem HQ staffers do that?

Or was it that they didn’t want to?

Did they find all of Quist’s baggage and simply sweep it under the rug?

Or is it just incompetence?

Seems that way. I mean, no vetting took place at all despite Quist running a campaign for the nomination for a full two months before that nomination took place!

But my God did those same Helena Dems go after Caron Cooper when she had the audacity to run in an open primary for a PSC seat last year.

They had plenty of time to go after me on their two mouthpiece blogs, either with their anti-semitic smears or talk that I’m anti-gay or anti-woman or whatever else they think might stick that day.

They sure had time to go after Matt Rosendale, which proved to be a big mistake as it was Rosendale’s staffer that outed Quist campaign manager Tina Olechowski as the primary person behind MT Cowgirl, forcing that site to shut down for 10 days straight now.

But they didn’t have time to vet Quist.

And now we all suffer because of that.

We’ll suffer for 2 years because of it, and that’s only if a Dem comes along in 2018 and does what hasn’t been done in 22 years – win this House seat.

If not we’ll suffer for 4 years, and pin our hopes on 2020.

All because the Montana Democratic Party is run by incompetent people that care more about lining their own pockets than winning political races.

Hell, the Dem staffers in Helena spend more money on eating out than they spend on trying to take back key legislative seats!

Their precious Mansfield-Metcalf dinner cost them $49,000 to put on, and despite raising perhaps $70,000 to $80,000 that night, they have no concrete wins to point to that can justify either the expense or the use of those donations.

Mainly Montana Dems are just pissing in the wind.

And no, still no word about the June convention.

That’s probably because there is none this year.

If you look at page 12 of the Montana Democratic Party rules you’ll find that the state chair needs to call a platform convention “after the primary election and no later than September 15 in even-numbered years.”

So there’ll be no platform convention this year.

There will be a state officers convention, however.

Yep, the state chair needs to call for the “State Officers Convention between July 1 and October 31 of each odd numbered year to elect a Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary of the State Central Committee and members of the Executive Board.”

Those voting for those people will include “all members of the Montana Democratic State Central Committee and Democratic incumbents of the Montana Legislature.”

So we should have a vote on new leadership sometime this summer.

Sadly, this vote and every other vote that happens will be done by raising one’s hand.

No secret ballots for our Democrats.

Something like that makes it hard to dish out payback and revenge if your vote didn’t go ‘the way it should.’

Remember, those voting are incumbents.

Let’s say one of them votes against Nancy Keenan, but Keenan keeps her position.

Think that Democratic incumbent is gonna get a lot of financial support from the Party next time they run?

I don’t.

Maybe Keenan will even withhold the Voter Access Network, or VAN, from them.

Democrats don’t think they can win if they can’t knock on the doors of the Dems that are already going to vote for ‘em, after all.

So it’ll be interesting to see what happens as we get closer to July.

Since we know that Rob Quist has no chance at winning this race, it’s a good bet people will be angry with Dem leadership, not to mention the 1/5 showing just 6 months ago.

Will that get us the new leadership that the Montana Democratic Party so desperately needs?

I really hope so.

9 Comments

A Detailed Look at #MTAL Special Election Spending

5/15/2017

5 Comments

Rob Quist’s pre-special election FEC campaign finance report is 3,207 pages.

Greg Gianforte’s is 312 pages.

Let’s start with the shorter one first.

As you know, Schedule A individual contributions come first, and for Gianforte this takes up 282 pages of the report.

So that means we just have 30 pages of spending, which to me is where you really gauge a campaign’s actions and determine what it cares about.

Here are some things that stood out to me:

$919,000 to Ohio’s Medium for a TV ad buy
$204,000 to Virginia’s FP1 Strategies for consulting/advertising
$115,000 to Virginia’s Allegiance Direct for mailings
$88,000 to Virginia’s Campaign Solutions for lists and fundraising
$57,000 to Oregon’s Moore Information for a survey
$8,500 to Utah’s Arena for yard signs
$2,700 to Zinke for Congress for a donor list

All that shit right there comes out to $1.4 million.

Let’s get to the staffers.

$3,848.50 to Shane Scanlon for wages
$3,847.50 to Elisabeth Scanlon for wages
$2,387.20 to Kerri Seekins-Crowe for wages
$1,173.26 to Casey Collins for wages
$1,070.46 to Sam Rubino for wages
$616.62 to Caleb Hinkle for wages
$274.05 to Chase Sick for wages

That comes out to $13,214 for those 7 people.

On top of it I see that $2,285.89 was given to D.C.’s Brock Lowrance for a reimbursement…whatever that means.

So who are these other people?

Caleb Hinkle mainly does stuff with the National Guard but did serve as a MT GOP field director for the 2016 campaign, and was an associate director for Americans for Prosperity starting way back in 2014. He was an intern for Representative Daines for 8 months in 2012 and before that a miner for Sapphire Gallery in Phillipsburg.

Sam Rubino was serving as Director of Policy and Planning for Arntzen’s OPI as late as December 2016, though I’m assuming that he’s now gone.

Chase Sick is an Iowan that worked for the Hawaiian Republican Party and served as a field coordinator for Turning Point USA. He currently lives in Bozeman.

Kerri Seekins-Crowe is from Billings and ran for House District 50 in 2016, losing by about 10% to incumbent Democrat Virginia Court. Judging from her website it looks like she’ll be running for the Billings City Council this year.

I can’t find anything on Casey Collins.

I can’t find anything on Elisabeth Scanlon, but it’s a safe bet to assume she’s Shane Scanlon’s wife.

Shane Scanlon was of course the communications person for the Montana GOP for awhile, at least when they fired their last director in October 2015. Before that he was Daines’ press secretary for the 2014 campaign.

Beginning in December 2016 he started working for Mercury, a “leading global, bipartisan public strategy firm” that was setting up shop in Helena.

Scanlon would serve as VP. Other big players at Mercury’s Montana office were Mark Baker and Denny Rehberg, the latter serving as co-chairman.

Ironically, the Bozeman marketing firm that was working with the Montana Office of Tourism for more than a decade – and which was bumped in favor of a Wisconsin firm – was also called Mercury.

Anyways, Gianforte’s spending $13,000 a month to keep those 7 people on staff.

He gives $1 more in salary to Shane Scanlon than he does Elisabeth Scanlon.

All of his spending together takes up about 20 pages and then it’s 10 pages of returned donations.

Long-time readers of this site know that this is the same ol’ song and dance.

Gianforte spent most of his money out-of-state when he was running for governor and he’s doing the same now.

Creating Montana jobs means nothing to Greg.

Nothing at all.

Follow the money.

Let’s get to Rob Quist.

Schedule A individual contributions make up 3,039 pages of Rob’s report.

When we get to the spending, here’s what stood out to me.

$1.2 million to D.C’s Canal Partners Media for media
$286,000 to Maryland’s Mothership Strategies for ads
$75,000 to Maryland’s Revolution Field Strategies for salary
$37,000 to D.C.’s Switchboard for a media buy
$20,000 to D.C.’s Blue Labs Analytics for media
$16,000 to the MT Democratic Party for salaries
$14,000 to New York’s Global Strategy Group for polling
$10,000 to D.C.’s Activate for consulting
$2,500 to Vermont’s Democracy for America for phone banking

All that shit comes out to $1.7 million.

I didn’t add up all the Act Blue service charges that are incurred for people donating online, but I’d say there were over $20,000 in such charges.

Clearly, Rob is raising a lot of money online via Act Blue.

I also saw that hundreds of dollars were spent in Glacier Bank fees. Please, use your bank’s ATMs and save money, not some other banks’.

I was happy to see that Rob is spending more on graphic design and such in-state.

Most big purchases continue to happen out-of-state, though.

It’s a shame. I hope when Dems try and take this seat back again in 2018 they have a smart candidate that knows spending money in-state is a great thing!

Pointing out that your opponent is not is also a great thing.

Rob can’t do this because he’s spending tons of money out of state, just as Gianforte is.

This is due to the influence of his out-of-state staffers and the out-of-state-dominated-mindset of the MT Democratic Party.

Like I said, it’s a shame.

And what the hell are they making these rookie mistakes in the big leagues for?

To me this is political science 101 stuff here.

I guess that’s why I’m not making the big campaign bucks – I don’t sell out my state (though since many of Quist’s staffers aren’t even from MT, I guess it doesn’t really matter…to them).

Canal Partners, for instance, is listed on the FEC report as being from Georgia but when you go to their site their first contact information summary says the District of Criminals.

It’s nice putting Georgia on the report, however – makes it seem like the campaign is spreading the money around when in reality they’re not.

Sure as shit ain’t spreadin’ it in Montana, we know that.

And how about the staffers?

Well…which ones?

The ones he’s paying or the ones he’s just reimbursing, or that someone else is paying?

It’s kinda hard to tell at times.

Mostly we get names and tons of mileage and other, not-listed reimbursements.

So what’s going on?

Well, as I told you on May 6, Progressive Turnout Project began paying for a lot of salaries.

This is a great way to hide staff spending from your official FEC reports, which is what I feel Rob is doing.

It should come as no surprise – he’s spent the last decade hiding money from one group or another.

You can go into the FEC report and figure out what people are making…sort of.

When we look at Amanda Frickle, for instance, we see that she’s racked-up over $4,000 for April and another $747 for May.

I have no idea why.

Jessica Grennan is another one that’s making a lot, over $13,000 to be exact…and just for the month of April.

All of this is listed as "Reimbursement (vendors that aggregate over $200 listed below)".

I have no idea what that means, or where that money went.

Shady accounting, if you ask me.

Grennan was a White House intern and before that a lackey for Tester’s 2006 primary election. Now she’s on Forward Montana, which for those in the know is nothing more than a code word for ultra-liberal ideas that are unelectable anywhere outside of Missoula.

And these two women aren’t even on the staff, though I wouldn’t blame you for thinking so based on the absurdly high payouts they get each month.

Digging further into the report we see that Rob Quist now has 16 ‘official’ staffers, including himself.

Here’s how that breaks down:

Molly Moody $4,920.44 (fundraiser for Denise Juneau)
Tina Olechowski $4,213.06 (from New York)
Brandon DeMars $4,119.14
Alyssa Roberts $3,292.80 (from Colorado)
Derek Ketner $3,292.80 (from North Carolina)
Emily Harris, $3,292.80
John Braswell $3,292.80 (from South Carolina)
Rob Quist $3,000
Dan West $2,660.14 (from Indiana)
Nathan Kosted $2,366.34
Rikki Henderson $2,359.95 (former Tester staffer)
Matthew Powell-Palm $2,243.26
Linda Howard $1,233.12
David Griffith $860.37
George Wolcott $497.32 (from Idaho)
Helen Kaiser $497.32

That comes out to $41,141 to pay those people.

Quist is spending nearly $29,000 more for his 16 staffers than Gianforte is paying for his 7 staffers.

And Gianforte is winning.

I have no doubt that he’ll win this race, and easily.

Remember, I’m not here to make friends or get a cushy job or have people tell me they like me.

I’m here to hold our politicians accountable.

I don’t think anyone in the state does a better job at it than I do (if you don’t believe me look at this joke of a report by Holly Michels of the IR)

And my how I’m hated for it.

Conclusion

There’s a lot more but I think we covered the gist of it.

Gianforte brought in $624,000 this period while Quist brought in $2.3 million.

For the election, Gianforte has raised $2.4 million and Quist has raised $3.2 million.

Gianforte has spent $1.4 million this period and $2.5 million for the election.

Quist has spent $2.3 million for the period (or everything he raised over the period) and $2.5 million for the election.

Gianforte has $826,000 cash on hand while Quist has $669,000.

The big narrative for the next day or two will be the fact that Gianforte lent his campaign $1 million.

Dems love talking about this, and why not? It's a lot easier to attack someone than it is to talk about the issues that are important to people.

Strategies like that are why 3 of the major daily newspapers in this state endorsed Gianforte over the weekend.

They simply don't know where Quist stands on the issues.

Welcome to the club.

I’m so glad that I didn’t vote for Rob Quist.

It’s all in the spending.

You can see how the leeches on his campaign staff are profiting themselves.

Rob even bumped his salary up from $2,000 a month to $3,000 a month.

Hey, what the hell? Gonna lose anyways so might as well take a page from your staffers’ book – grab as much for yourself as you can before the ship goes down.

When I saw the campaign was paying Nathan Kosted I knew I’d made the right choice not to vote for Quist.

We have that MT Humans Rights Network zealot and then we have New Yorker Tina running the campaign…the very same woman that runs MT Cowgirl.

I despise those people.

The fact that Rob Quist actually thinks they’re good enough to hire, well…good luck with that.

Yep, voting for Wicks was the right decision.

I’m glad I did it.

As far as I’m concerned, the Montana Democratic Party can go straight to hell.

Alas, they’ve already been heading that way for years now.

At least the rats jumping from the ship made off like bandits.

Meanwhile you and I continue to live in a state that doesn’t much care about its citizens, good jobs, or the fact that we’re aging out and our young people have all left.

Welcome to Montana politics.

5 Comments

Why I Voted for Mark Wicks Today

5/12/2017

5 Comments

Casting my ballot 13 days early

You might remember when I told you that I wouldn’t vote for John Walsh if you paid me.

I’m beginning to feel the same way about Rob Quist.

That’s why I just decided to go down and get it done today.

So I went down to the Missoula Fairgrounds after dropping my son off at school.

And I voted for Mark Wicks once I got there.

Remember - this is after I gave Rob $25 back on March 6 and after I supported him on this site for a long time.

I don’t need to explain myself or explain why, but what the hell, right?

For me it was the constant drip…drip…drip of the negative news cycle.

Rob has no one but himself to blame for this.

My final decision to vote for Wicks came on Tuesday, May 9.

That was the day we saw the Lee Enterprises story about Rob trying to hide his apartment rental income.

For me that was enough.

I’d already told you why the special election was over way back on January 26.

I’d already told you 10 reasons why Quist would lose way back on March 30.

Since then we’ve only had more bad news.

This is how Bobby Calvan put it on May 7, two days before the apartment deception story broke:

“Democrats were caught off guard two months ago when Quist acknowledged years of financial travails, including three liens for unpaid state income taxes, a lawsuit alleging breach of contract and a $10,000 loan default.

The tax liens were settled last year and a campaign staffer provided documentation Saturday that the loan has been repaid.

Just recently, he refiled a federally required financial disclosure statement after The Associated Press raised questions about its accuracy. His 2016 federal tax return shows Quist and his wife Bonni had $64,805 in income.”

For me, that extra $60,000 or so of income that he didn’t report for last year was a big one.

That’s deception, or willfully deceiving others for your own personal gain.

When I saw the apartment story it was exactly the same: deceiving others so you profit personally.

That’s what hiding rental unit income from the IRS and the Department of Revenue is.

You do that so you pay less taxes, keeping more money in your pocket.

Deception for personal gain.

Isn’t Congress full of people like that, and isn’t that kinda the picture Dems are trying to paint of Gianforte?

They should look closer to home.

And listen – you can justify Quist’s financial dealings all you want.

His New York campaign manager Tina Olechowski said the Quists “did not have a full accounting of their income” when they completed their campaign reports.

I just don’t buy that, nor do I buy these arguments that are cropping up to justify the rental apartments.

To me it all stinks, so I did what I felt like doing right after the debate – I voted for Mark Wicks.

And when it comes to that debate, they really should have never let Wicks in.

I can see why they wanted to stop him – he did the best job and won the bore-fest of a thing.

The closing statement was what did it for me.

So I went down and voted for Wicks today, both because I think he’s the best person for the job, and because I’m just sick of it.

I’m sick of this campaign.

We’ve been talking about it ever since the Zinke Interior rumors started way back in November.

That’s about 6 months now.

Boy did we get fooled.

This is what I wrote about Quist on January 11:

“I think Quist is an affable fellow that doesn’t have any baggage or people wanting to grind an axe.

I can’t think of any real negatives when it comes to Quist.”

Boy was I wrong. I should have went with my gut from the very beginning.

Back then I figured Quist’s campaign was a joke. I’d never heard of the guy, and I’m 35.

Every voter from 18 to 35 would be saying the same thing, therefore.

But then Schweitzer got in there and endorsed him.

Many are still wondering why, especially in the light of no campaign appearances together.

Well, if I knew it was over more than a month ago then others did too.

On Wednesday I took down my Rob Quist campaign sign, again, because of the apartment story.

It was the last straw.

I dunno how others in the state feel, but I just didn’t feel good about Quist anymore.

So I voted with my heart, and my heart told me that the right person for this job is Mark Wicks.

Will he win?

I’d be damn surprised if he did. I’d be surprised if he got 10% of the vote, but he might.

People don’t like Gianforte and for many, Quist has now left a bad taste in their mouths.

I dunno what’s gonna happen, but like I told you a few days ago I see it like this:

Gianforte 52%
Quist 40%
Wicks 7%
Other: 1%

I’m sure I’ll be lambasted and lampooned for voting for Wicks, and that’s fine.

If I wanted a friend in politics I’d go out and buy a dog.

But I didn’t start this site more than 4 years ago to make friends.

I started it to try and make Montana a better place.

And that’s why I voted for Mark Wicks for Congress today.

13 days to go.

Happy voting.

5 Comments

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The Slow Times Start

Well, She’s Finally Over

Gianforte Body Slam Open Post

May 25 Updates
9 AM

Update
9:45 AM

Update
11:05 AM

Why I’m Extremely Confident

The Trump Arms Deal

Conclusion

Helena Hodgepodge

The May Finance Report for Montana Democrats

Frustrations with Rural Montana Democratic Committee Meetings

What Might Have Been

A Detailed Look at #MTAL Special Election Spending

Conclusion

Why I Voted for Mark Wicks Today

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​May 25 Updates ​9 AM

Update 9:45 AM

​Update 11:05 AM

​The Trump Arms Deal

​Conclusion

​ Conclusion

MT Book 7

​Montana Blog

​Popular Posts

Categories

Archives

​My MT History Books

My Montana Novels

My Montana Short Fiction

May 25 Updates
9 AM

Update
9:45 AM

Update
11:05 AM

The Trump Arms Deal

Conclusion

Conclusion

Montana Blog

Popular Posts

My MT History Books