Category: 2017 Legislature

The Montana Legislature meets for ninety days every two years. Please, oh please, Representative Dude and Senator Dudette, don’t make us wish it was two days every ninety years.

Be civil. Be sensible. Don’t put your party or your own political ambitions above doing what’s right.

The efficacy of your work won’t be judged by the number of bills you pass, your ideological purity, or your good intentions. Your work this session will be judged by the real impact it has on the prosperity, liberty and opportunities preserved for your constituents.

For example, it was reported that Senate President Scott Sales, Republican from Bozeman, said recently at the Montana Chamber breakfast that he would probably not vote for any infrastructure bill. I hope that any Republican who thinks that way would reconsider.

While government wasteful spending is bad, bad, bad, common sense says – no, screams – that building and repairing public infrastructure is exactly the kind of spending state and local governments should be focusing on. As long as the goal is to promote the common good and not to create more bureaucracy and make-work for favored constituencies, well planned and carefully prioritized infrastructure is exactly what our state needs.

We sorely need to create an economic climate in Montana that attracts and retains more and higher paying private sector jobs. Roads, bridges, water projects and high speed internet, etc., are essential to that end. So lets not play, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the ideologically purest of them all?” on either side of the aisle.

By the way, and here I digress a bit, Senator Sales is one of the GOP contestants in the “Who Wants To Replace Ryan Zinke?” show. A couple of others who have thrown in their Montana cowboy hats are Great Falls’ own, Republican Senator Ed Buttrey and Democrat Casey Schreiner.

Former GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Gianforte, Public Service Commission Vice Chair (and Great Falls High School grad) Travis Kavulla, newly elected State Auditor Matt Rosendale and Democrat Rep. Amanda Curtis are a few other names rumored to be possible entries in the Congressional race.

The state Central Committees from each party will entertain their respective list of interested candidates and select one to go on to a special election sometime in the very near future. Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a U.S. Congressperson from Great Falls? Yes, Rick, it would be way cool.

Anyway, back to our Montana legislative session. Congratulations and good luck to all of those who are sacrificing to go to Helena and serve as citizen legislators. We need you all to behave with honesty, integrity and goodwill. We love our Treasure State and we don’t want to be in the economic doldrums anymore. We have yuuuuuuuge potential here and we are trusting y’all to get ‘er done in the next 90 days.

In conclusion, all of you hardworking Montana Reps and Sens shouldn’t think of yourselves as Democrats or Republicans. Instead, think of yourselves as employees under the watchful eye of your boss. Because that is exactly what you are. Now get to work.

With Ryan Zinke expected to sail through Senate confirmation hearings to become Donald Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, Montana politicians are rapidly angling to replace him in the U.S. House.

The very good Mike Dennison has a piece profiling six sitting legislators and how their Congressional aspirations might affect the 2017 session.

For Republicans, Sen. Ed Buttrey, a Great Falls businessman, was the first to announce his candidacy. Buttrey hails from the moderate wing of the GOP, is good friends with Zinke, and would likely approximate most of Zinke’s policy positions. His leading role in expanding Montana Medicaid did not endear him to more conservative Republicans, however — and it’s precisely these right-wing Central Committee members who will choose a nominee for the special election. If Buttrey can survive the hothouse of the state Central Committee (a big “if”), he would stand an excellent chance to win.

Other names include 29 year-old Rep. Daniel Zolnikov – Billings, as well as Senate President Scott Sales – Bozeman. Old charges of dark money (“Drain the Swamp?”) would indisputably follow Sales, who — perhaps to Dennison’s point — does not appear as though he will play nice this session, nor does he seem interested in legislating from anywhere other than the extreme right:

Senate pres. Scott Sales probably won't vote for any infrastructure bill, he says at @MontanaChamber breakfast. #mtpol #mtleg

— Travis Kavulla (@TKavulla) January 3, 2017

This is hardly surprising. Sales often stakes out far-right positions on bills, yet seldom enforces the “whip” on his members, instead letting his caucus make up its own mind. Of the two leaders from within the legislative chambers, Rep. and House Speaker Austin Knudsen is the more thoughtful and more likely to make a lasting impact as a conservative leader. People might see him as a better choice than Sales if it’s a leader from the Legislature they are looking for.

On the Democratic side, Reps. Amanda Curtis – Butte, Casey Schreiner – Great Falls, and Kelly McCarthy – Billings have all entered the fray. One has to assume, though, that in a red state, and competing in an election so closely removed from a strong Republican November, any Democrat not named Brian Schweitzer will almost certainly face an uphill battle.

Coming later in the week: a look at other announced and rumored candidates from outside the Legislature.