Losing has never paid so well.
Just ask Nancy and now Monica. Despite being in the ‘Party of the People,’ they make more money than most of their neighbors, indeed, more than most in the state.
Sadly, those high earnings don’t translate into electoral success for Democrats.
The truth is that Nancy Keenan was a terrible executive director of the Montana Democratic Party, and Monica Lindeen will be just as bad.
Both women lack ideas, and the youthful vigor required to come up with new ideas.
There was a great post highlighting this on The Ghost of Tom Joad the other week, that site’s first post since August.
It’s called When You’re In a Hole.
I highly encourage you to check that article out.
Mostly, the Montana Democratic Party is one big sham. Anyone that’s taken the time to follow the money knows this.
Sadly, the only person in this state that’s taken the time to follow the money is lowly ol’ me.
Having done so, I know that the Montana Democratic Party requires around $45,000 each month in donations just to cover what they pay their dozen or so staffers. They need an additional $59,000 to pay their health care and payroll taxes and to feed them. Another $1,000 or so is spent on their cell phones.
None of that $6,175.62 each month that’s earmarked for Lindeen - which comes out to around $74,102 each year - translates into success at the ballot box.
This doesn’t matter.
The Keenans and Lindeens of the world know that no one is going to hold them accountable, and that for around 2 to 3 years they can milk the top position in Dem HQ for all it’s worth.
All it’s worth for those two women comes out to around $74,000 each year.
That’s a lot of money to pay someone that can’t figure out how to win.
And Democrats can’t win - they can’t win at the statewide level and they can’t win a chamber of the legislature.
This will become all the more apparent next year when there’s no Democratic incumbents at the statewide level, and not even a single Dem on the PSC.
No statewide Dems and no regional Dems, and there’s no real leaders for the Dems in the legislature, either.
Over a decade of incompetent, revolving-door-’leadership’ - coupled with a base that neither pays attention or cares - has gotten the Montana Democratic Party to where it is today.
Keenan and now Lindeen are just the public face of that incompetence.
Anyone that thinks Dems in Montana are going to win a single statewide office next year needs to have their head examined.
And no matter who the Democratic nominee for president is next year, Montana voters are probably going to vote for the Republican nominee - most likely Trump - by 20% or more.
And most of all, we know that despite the overwhelming number of votes that will go the GOP’s way instead of the Dems’...Monica Lindeen will still make $6,175 each month, and the gaggle of out-of-state staffers she has surrounding her and telling her all her ideas are gold will make $7,500 to $100 each month.
(Back in June, Wyoming-native Trent Bolger actually made $7,500 for the month as the Dem’s finance director, which was about $1,500 more than Keenan made. I consider this a huge waste of money).
For those individuals at Dem HQ in Helena, things are fine. In fact, things are better than fine...better than they’ve ever been before.
Just follow the money and you’ll see that no matter whether it’s win, lose or draw...the head of the Dems in Montana and their staff will continue to profit, and handsomely so.
Who says it doesn’t pay to lose?