Political Observations

Every once in a while I've got to remind you that I'm running for office.

​For instance, I got my campaign cards back from the printer today.
 
I’m not real happy with ‘em.
 
Here’s my card from last year next to my card for this year.

 
Those cards are right next to each other but my new one has all that white space around the black border area.
 
I told Alpha Graphics that I didn’t want any white space, but they didn’t do it like that.
 
Oh well. I can live with that.
 
Here’s what the back of the cards look like.
 

 
I’m happy that the text is larger than last year.
 
I also spelled Chouteau and Prairie counties right this time.
 
What I didn’t get right was my name.
 
Down at the bottom it says “Paid for by Greg Standberg,” sans the “r.”
 
That was a last minute add-on that I emailed, but Alpha Graphics spelled my name wrong and damn me to hell, I didn’t catch it in the proof.
 
Now they say if I want to get it fixed I’ll have to pay another $90.
 
No thanks.
 
So I’m a little disappointed over that, but it’s not really a big deal.
 
I’m not going to lose my race over my campaign card.
 
I’ll lose my race if I don’t knock on enough doors.
 
I’m moving up my schedule to get out in June. The special election will be over then.
 
I have to knock on at least 1,000 doors to use up all my current campaign cards, and I’d like to knock on at least 3,000 doors.
 
I’ll of course need more cards for that, and this time you know I’ll make sure my name is spelled right.

 
Moving on to the special election, boy…what is there to say?
 
I think this person on the Missoula Independent said it well today:
 

 
Then we have types like Pete Talbot over at ID.
 
I stopped reading this site but someone told me about this article and I had to look.
 
Wow!
 
I think the “whistling past the graveyard comment” pretty much sums it up.
 
Wicks is the one that many more people than usual will vote for, simply because he really has said the things Quist should have been saying all along instead of the garbage the Montana Democratic Party makes him say.
 
I mean, what ever happened to better grain prices for farmers? That might have won a few rural votes. Planned Parenthood mailings will not.
 
I think a lot of people are getting tired of Planned Parenthood filling up their mailbox with their ads for Quist.
 
Any democrat that wants to win in Montana can quietly say they support choice and leave it at that.
 
But we don’t see this. It truly does show us that Democrats have learned nothing, as a woman’s right to choose is not a winning issue in a very red state.
 
I know a lot of the older hippie types and the transplants want it to be, but besides being a very vocal minority they have no real power to get anything done.
 
But let’s dig into some of the mental wanderings at ID.
 
ID says things are looking good for Quist because there’s a lot of yard signs in the Bitterroot and around Hot Springs.
 
Well, it’d be damn surprising if those ex-hippies, Missoula liberal transplants, and some former Seattle liberals (which might number 50 to 60) that live in town don’t love putting up signs.
 
Gianforte will easily carry Hot Springs.
 
Sanders County is another one that’ll go for Gianforte, and easily.
 
Quist is only up there because he’s often played for free at the Symes Hotel, which is one of the favorite hangouts for the upscale Missoula liberal crowd on the weekends.
 
In regards to the supposed Hi-Line tour we all know what this is – hitting up the reservations a week before the election.
 
Scrapin’ the bottom of the barrel ain’t gonna work.
 
Minorities don’t win elections; majorities do.
 
So usually I’d say stop fucking around and get to work, but what’s the point?
 
There’s just over 2 weeks until this election and who knows how many have voted.
 
There sure isn’t going to be a rush to get out and vote on a Thursday at the end of May.
 
Most people don’t care. They already know that what happens in Congress doesn’t much affect them.
 
If it does they can do nothing about it – corporations long ago bought up our representatives.
 
One of the things that I find most amusing about ID’s recent post, however, is the fact that they’re welcoming all these out-of-state volunteers in.
 
Um…I thought being from out-of-state was a serious black mark against you?
 
Oh, that’s right…only if your name is Greg Gianforte, or if you’re a millionaire or multi-millionaire or billionaire or Republican!
 
So if you’re any of those things – or if you’ve lived here for 25 years as a transplant – then you’re bad.
 
But if you come in for a weekend to help knock on doors and fill in the voter database, then you’re good.
 
Gosh, wish I could have it both ways in my household. I'm sure my wife would love that!
 
And how about Bullock?
 
Tester is supposedly going to make an appearance for Quist up in Kalispell, but that’s really just helping out Jon for 2018.
 
Oh, and about 2018…that’s what the ‘desperate’ Gianforte fundraising emails are for – his 2018 reelection efforts.
 
He doesn’t need money for 2017. This race has been his for weeks now. Wicks is more of a threat to him than Quist at this point, just because of the peel-off votes that the Libertarian will take.
 
I know a lot of Dems are going to vote for Wicks too, though. I might be one of them – I haven’t decided yet.
 
Anyways, Bullock’s too busy with his job to go out and campaign.
 
That’s odd, as in 2016 he was out on the campaign trail all the time, even though he had the job.
 
Sometimes he’d have some strange company on that campaign trail, hence all the talk of getting rid of his plane for campaigning.
 
Again, this wanting-it-both-ways attitude. When did the Democratic Party get to be full of spoiled and entitled brats?
 
In closing, isn’t it all just fun to watch?
 
A campaign is falling apart, the Dem Party in Montana is working up excuses to reduce their share of the blame, and the state is just getting redder and redder.
 

• No plans exist to take back the legislature, besides some shit-shingle long-term idea of taking maybe 1 or 2 seats a year, which isn’t even working.

 

• There’s no plan to take back the 4 statewide seats that were lost last year.

 

• There’s no plan to defeat Daines, or get rid of Gianforte when he gets in there.

 
I’d like to say there’s no plan to get Tester reelected next year, but he’s not that stupid.
 
Those in the District of Criminals that bought him long ago aren’t that stupid.
 
So Dems will have someone to rally around and champion and use as an excuse that, yes, they can still win in Montana.
 
Meanwhile all of us who live here in the trenches know the truth.