Missoula Elections Update

Today was the last day for a Missoula municipal candidate to withdraw from their race.


Just one did so - Madison Schroeder, who was running for mayor, along with Engen and Lisa Triepke.


Schroeder has now thrown her support behind Triepke.


Wow, that’s great news for Triepke, as Schroeder would have undoubtedly taken votes away from her.


I’m sure Engen wasn’t happy to hear this news today, either. Now it’s a 2-way race, and that hurts him.


I also think the recent revaluations of Missoula properties will hurt him, long-term at least. Now people will have to pay more taxes...justs not this election year.


How convenient.

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I was urged to drop out of my race as well. Jesse Ramos tried very hard to convince me to do so...inviting me to his office once, calling me another time, and then coming over to my apartment today.


So I thought about it a bit more between noon and the 5 PM withdraw deadline.


I even asked the elections office how you withdraw, which consists of filling out a form and getting it notarized and turning it into their office.


I took it a bit further and put up a poll on my website’s homepage. Between around 2 PM to 5 PM it got 21 votes, and here’s how that broke down:

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So as you can see, most people want me to drop out. I was actually surprised how many didn’t want me to drop out.


In the end I did nothing, which means I’m still in the race. I just didn’t spend $150 of my own money to file, nor did I collect $370 in donations from 4 people, only to drop out 2 months before absentee ballots go out.


That means it’ll continue to be a 4-way race in Ward 4.


It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out. I know Jesse Ramos is out there knocking on doors and doing a lot of work.


I’m not doing a damn thing right now, myself.


I know incumbent Jon Wilkins isn’t doing anything - he’s out of town for a month!


What Chris Badgley is doing is anyone’s guess.


I know that each one of those people will raise more money than me, and that’s just fine. We’ll see how they spend it and how that helps them.


The first campaign finance reports (C-5’s) are due on Friday, and I turned mine in today.


Next week COPP should have those reports on their site, and I’ll dig into them for the Missoula races.


Mostly, what can you spend money on in such a local race? Here are some ideas:

• Facebook ads
• Radio ads
• Newspaper inserts
• Mass-mailings
• Campaign card handouts
• Yard signs
• Google Adwords ads
• Fundraisers
• Phone calls

That’s about it. I suppose you could hire people to go out and knock on doors, but that might be tricky...even if they’re 1099 workers that you don’t pay taxes on.


A lot of people think that if they raise enough money, they can just do ads and mailings and they’ll win.


Some think that if they just go out and knock on every door they’ll win.


A few think they can do nothing and win.


We’ll see which approach works best, based on the C-5’s and the election results 3 months from now.


Until then, happy election season!

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