He’s the self-styled “people’s candidate for Ward 1,” John K. Hunt is. Alas, the people decided otherwise.
So now Kevin’s out.
And really...who is this guy?
His Facebook page is locked. His LinkedIn page says he’s suspended from practicing law in Oregon, and his website forces you to click the “enter website” button before you can view anything.
Weird.
And who in the hell gets banned from RD? I’ve never heard of that before.
Strange.
He got 482 votes in his quest for Ward 1, or about 13%. (The winner of that race got nearly 1,700 votes)
I’m quite impressed that he got that many votes, considering no one believed in him enough to donate to his campaign.
He was almost entirely self-funded. He had just one donor, who gave $180. The other $10,000 of his campaign cash came from himself.
That's a lot of money to spend to get a City Council seat, but in reality, he spent just $7,684. Most of it went to a postcard company in Florida. Didn’t do him much good.
So I suspect in that closing campaign finance report, he’ll repay the $2,000 or so he has left to himself for those loans.
$8,000 for about 500 votes, or about $16 a vote.
Ouch.
Do you think he’ll be back?
One and done...that’s the mantra of most Democrats in this state.
I was reminded of John Heenan yesterday, when he appeared in a Missoulian article about suing Albertsons. He’s a classic example of the one-and-done principle. Grant Kier is another...John Lewis...Amanda Curtis...hell, just about anyone that’s run with a (D) behind their name in the past decade.
Makes for one helluva bench, don’t it?
It’s a loser’s bench, one no one wants to sit on. Why would they?
It’ll be interesting to see what the future holds for Kevin. Currently, he’s confining himself to the comments section of the Missoulian, but that could change. I hear we have another House seat coming up soon.
And let’s not forget (no matter how much we want to), that four months from now, filing for the 2023 legislature begins. Costs just $15, a smite less than the $150 for City Council.
Missoula has about 8 seats in the House and 2 in the State Senate. Will Kevin’s name grace our ballots come next June?
I’d be willing to bet on it.