I respectfully decline to seek the Senate nomination. Many thanks to John Walsh & I'll support whoever the next nominee turns out to be.
— Brian Schweitzer (@brianschweitzer) August 7, 2014
From Politico:
Sen. John Walsh announced Thursday that he’s dropping out of the race for his Montana seat, cutting short a brief Senate career marred by accusations of plagiarism and dealing a blow to Democrats’ already-grim chances of keeping the spot.
Walsh will stay in the Senate through the end of his term, which ends in early January. But he said the plagiarism revelations had “become a distraction” from the debate Montanans deserved to hear in the race…
Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock appointed Walsh, his lieutenant governor, to replace Baucus, in the apparent hope that his incumbency could be a boon in a challenging electoral environment. But with Walsh out, the Montana Democratic Party now has until Aug. 20 to name a new candidate in the November election — and not a strong bench to choose from.
Pressure is building in Democratic political circles for Nancy Keenan, a long-time abortion rights activist, to jump into the race, even though sources say she has so far resisted. And at least one other Montana Democrat, former lieutenant governor John Bohlinger, has expressed interest.
Whoever does step in would face Republican Rep. Steve Daines, who is heavily favored to win a seat the GOP has not held since 1913…
My emphasis. Conventional Wisdom seems to be that Democrats are doooomed, but would — for instance — support from Emily’s List / ActBlue make a difference?
OzarkHillbilly
No.
Botsplainer
Walsh fucked the dog on this one.
I’m more annoyed over the level of “work” they find acceptable at Master’s programs at the policy jackatoriums also known as our war college systems.
It sounds as if doing the equivalent of long blog posts after a bunch of pointless prattle is adequate for credentialing and professional development – the money would be better spent on sending them to real colleges for their MAs.
Alex S.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Seconded. It’s Montana, come on!
Mustang Bobby
I had my doubts that Walsh would win even without the news of his stenography.
OzarkHillbilly
Something to smile about:
Indonesian family finds daughter swept away in 2004 tsunami
amk
Way to fuck it up, dems.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: The kid was four when she was swept away by the tsunami. Most four-year-olds know their own names and the name of the place they live. Why didn’t the people who found the kid try to return her to her family?
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: It’s the 3rd world Betty. Things are done there for reasons unfathomable to us, but are just simple common sense to them.
Nicole
@Betty Cracker: She was swept out to a fairly remote island and I doubt the fisherman who found her had the time or resources to search any way other than word of mouth. Not to mention, 170,000 people died in that tsunami. He probably assumed her family was among them.
Betty Cracker
Regarding whom the Dems should run in Montana, they’d probably have a better shot if they found some gun-humping Blue Dog. Sad but true.
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Also, there was the disaster itself with hundreds of thousand dead all around the Indian Ocean and hitting Aceh particularly hard. Some of these people live in extremely remote locations without anything like what we would recognize as “government. It would be easy for them to assume her family was dead, and what gov’t there was far away and otherwise occupied.
Imagine the entire east coast getting hit by a Katrina on steroids without any warning. Even we here in the US with all our resources, would have a hard time dealing with that.
Keith G
@Betty Cracker: I’m afraid you are probably correct on that. Still, I’m beginning to think that it is a bit past time for the Democrats to start finding the most charismatic and confrontational spokesman for liberal populism possible and let them just swing for the fences. You can’t build or strengthen a movement by hiding your best arguments in a closet hoping not to anger anyone.
Yeah, we will lose some rounds, but along the way we should begin to attract believers and converts to the cause.
big ole hound
I think Betty Cracker should get a condo in Montana and start making speeches. She would scare the hell out of those money hungry diggers and drillers.Sic ’em just for the sheer fun of it.
ploeg
Emily in Emily’s List stands for Early Money Is Like Yeast. I’m sure that they would do their best, but it’s super late and they’re on their back foot.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
rikyrah
I don’t even like him, but I’m disappointed in Brian Schweitzer. Why won’t he do this for the Democratic team?
My mind still boggles that Walsh got this far without anyone checking through his stuff. Maybe it’s because I’m Black and I automatically assume everyone would go through my **** with a fine-toothed comb. I simply don’t believe a Black politician with this kind of mess would have been allowed to prosper as long.
rikyrah
The woman mentioned above should just run. Get the experience. Get her name out there. Fight, dammit!
Gene108
After all the ways Republicans have openly been against the non-0.01%, I do not understand why so much of the country so blindly supports them.
It is reading about how Republicans are strong in so many states that gets me really down and feeling hopeless; is the hatred or dear of single issues – abortion and gun-grabbers – so strong as to override all other reasons to vote for a candidate?
Seems to be that way and until that changes every election will be an uphill battle in many places, no matter how well the Democrats try to campaign.
It is as if we need better voters first, before we can have a better country.
ploeg
@ploeg: Just for clarity, the whole point of groups such as Emily’s List is to provide seed money to candidates who would not otherwise have access to cash, to allow these candidates to get a hearing and therefore funding from other sources. Small but steady money works when it has time to work. When you have a brand new candidate only three months out from the election, well….
NotMax
Flash from the past, in the present.
FlipYrWhig
@Keith G:
_In Montana_ you ain’t gonna get _liberal_ populism. You might get populism populism, as in the cases of Schweitzer and Bullock.
Wasn’t Montana supposed to be ground zero for some of the Kossacks, or Sirota or Stoller, or someone like that?
Ramalama
It bothers me to no end that the 50 state strategy that Dean set up was allowed to crumble away. He had the right idea making a strong back bench. WTF Democrats?
FlipYrWhig
@Gene108:
Economic stress enhances bigotry and nativism. Even in places that are generally less susceptible to the paranoid style than the good ol’ USA.
guachi
As a former Montanan, Keenan and Bohlinger are both good choices. I hope one of them gets in the race.
Most open seats in Montana are very close affairs. Claims of Montana being a red state are just wrong. Democrats just need someone is isn’t simply a sacrifice.
OzarkHillbilly
Man police shot in Walmart killed over fake gun, family says
One doesn’t even have to guess what his race was.
lol
@Ramalama:
Can’t crumble away something that pretty much didn’t exist in concrete terms. The 50 State Strategy was mostly aspirational talk and buzzwords.
In practice, the 50SS did two things:
1. Build out the DNC tech infrastructure like Votebuilder and the data behind it. This is still in place and still evolving and improving. No room for complaint there.
2. Throw 100 grand or so at each state party to hire whatever staff they wanted. Some state parties hired staff in places they normally wouldn’t, other state parties used the money to pay for staff they already had, and still others used it to hire local cronies and idiots. There was no accountability or strategy for the staffers hired, it was just “Let’s throw $5+ million at the state parties and see what happens”. This is what thankfully got discarded in favor of OFA 2.0 (and later iterations) which had an actual strategy and put *more* staff on the ground overall.
OFA 2.0 is what bloggers think the 50 SS actual was but a black guy came up with it instead of their shining white knight so it’s the worst thing ever and Obama sold us out.
Edit: Also worth noting that the candidate recruitment that bloggers credit Dean with was actually the work of the DCCC chair, Rahm Emmanuel.
Gene108
@FlipYrWhig:
I can understand the backlash of the 1970’s, when crime was getting worse every year, drug use was increasing, etc. I can even understand the 1994 Gingrich wave in the House, because even after Reagan-Bush,Sr people still did not trust their government after Watergate and there were enough attacks on President Clinton that he was not going to fulfill his potential about restoring faith that government could work for the people.
But after 20 years, after the lies that got us into Iraq have been laid bare, after the 2006 backlash against Republicans for Iraq and other scandals, after showing nothing but contempt for every non-rich person in this country by refusing to expand Medicare, for example, why do people so blindly follow them?
Fear mongering only works up to a point. Even the biggest racist politicians of the 20th century did not stop aid to poor white people, like the GOP is doing today
rikyrah
Obama Is on a Pro-Labor Roll
The president just signed the most important workers’ rights reform of the past 20 years.
By Emily Bazelon
…………………………………..
So it’s a little odd that the latest executive order in this bunch has gone virtually ignored (following a few dutiful daily news stories) even though it packs the biggest punch. “This is one of the most important positive steps for civil rights in the last 20 years,” Paul Bland, executive director of Public Justice, a public-interest law group, says of the July 31 order. The employer-side law firm Littler Mendelson calls it “the most sweeping order to date” that the Obama administration has aimed at federal contractors. The trade group Associated Builders and Contractors is “strongly opposed” and says the order could create a federal contractor “blacklist.”
What’s this about? Bear with me for a minute, because there’s a reason this one isn’t lighting up TV screens or Twitter. It’s important, but it’s also kind of technical. The order, called Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces, does two things. It requires companies bidding for federal contracts worth more than $500,000 to make previous violations of labor law public, if they have any to report. That’s a shaming device that the administration hopes will push companies to settle back wage claims and nudge them toward better behavior in the future.
The second part of the order is what Bland is so excited about. This provision says that companies with federal contracts worth more than $1 million can no longer force their employees out of court, and into arbitration, to settle accusations of workplace discrimination. “Here’s why this is so important,” Bland said when I asked him to explain. “For the last 20 years, the Supreme Court has been encouraging employers to force their workers into a system of arbitration that has been badly rigged against the workers. And so this order will result in millions of employees having their rights restored to them.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2014/08/obama_executive_order_on_mandatory_arbitration_huge_news_for_workers_rights.html?wpsrc=sh_all_tab_tw_top
jibeaux
@FlipYrWhig: I don’t know from Montana, but I think there are a lot of reddish places where the right kind of — maybe not exactly liberal populist, but the “from the Democratic wing of the Democratic party” populist — could win. Sherrod Brown wins Ohio pretty handily, and while he’s not exactly firebrand he doesn’t hide from the party either. He’s likeable, smart, and talks about jobs and regular people to death. I don’t know how Montana comes down on abortion, but if she’s well versed in other topics I don’t know why agreeing with Constitutional law from the past 40+ years should doom your candidacy ab inicio. It’s probably naive, but it is the direction I’d like to see some movement in.
Gene108
@Gene108:
Can’t edit on my IPad. Post New Deal, racist politicians were not openly opposing aid to poor white people. The modern GOP is doing this by not expanding Medicaid and yet there is no backlash.
This goes beyond race based identity politics, in my opinion, into something not seen before in American politics.
Marc
@lol:
I agree with everything else you said, but this is a half-truth at best. Howard Dean and the DNC funded a lot of candidates that Emmanuel and the DCCC wouldn’t touch, like Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky (still serving today).
Emmanuel was good at recruiting Blue Dogs who got swept out in 2010 and flakes like Eric Massa, but he was scared of actual liberals. I wonder how many of his recruits are still around.
rikyrah
Miners union endorses Grimes in Kentucky
By Timothy Cama – 08/04/14 09:40 AM EDT
The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) has endorsed Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky’s Senate race, despite Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s attempts to paint her as an enemy of coal.
In a statement, the UMWA said Grimes has proven herself to be a coal advocate.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/214192-miners-union-endorses-grimes-in-kentucky#ixzz39nz6ZR00
The Thin Black Duke
@Gene108: I think you’re right, unfortunately. This goes way beyond greed, fear, hatred or stupidity. What we’re seeing from the GOP is “bad craziness”, and if the country doesn’t put the brakes on it now, we’re fucked.
MomSense
@lol:
Yes! The 50 state strategy has taken on a mythology that didn’t resemble what was actually happening on the ground. Also too part of the strategy meant recruiting candidates who were more electable (blue dogs) for conservative districts.
FlipYrWhig
@jibeaux: Sure. Populism is how Montana got Schweitzer, Tester, and Bullock in the first place. All of whom are an improvement on Baucus, IMHO. Bullock got a lot of good press for crusading against corporate influence… and he barely eked out a victory in the state. So it can be done. But there aren’t necessarily a ton of potential candidates with that kind of resume to their name, and Schweitzer (like Ed Rendell) doesn’t strike me as a great mentor/patron/incubator of proteges or successors.
lol
@Marc:
Can you spot the money from the DNC in this list of direct contributors?
Can you see any DNC money in this list of independent expenditures?
I do see that the DCCC spent $388K on Yarmuth in 2006. I don’t see any money from the DNC.
This is the mythmaking I’m talking about.
AxelFoley
@rikyrah:
Because he’s all talk and a coward.
WaterGirl
@Gene108: Try opening the edit box in a new window on your iPad – that’s what allows me to edit. I assume you know how to open a ink in a new window, yes? If not, let me know.
Keith G
@FlipYrWhig: Of course I don’t expect Montana to flip true blue. What we need to do is to create an audience for our arguments. One can only do that by, uhh, making those arguments.
There is a type of Democrat that is very proficient at self-handicapping. Even if one fights what turns out to be it’s a losing battle, good can come of it. That is a lesson the activists on the far Right learned a generation ago – and the results of that learned lesson is one of the things that has allowed those conservatives to punch above their weight class for quite some time.
rikyrah
Prayers for Hawaii right now.
FlipYrWhig
@lol: I think the blogosphere never forgave Rahm for Tammy Duckworth vs. Christine Cegelis and used that race as a template for all subsequent Rahm vs. [Not-Rahm] disputes: “Rahm wants candidates who are ciphers with money, not Real Liberals like [Not-Rahm] favors.”
FlipYrWhig
@Keith G: Maybe Montana isn’t overflowing with people who like to make or hear liberal arguments.
Schlemizel
@FlipYrWhig:
Well that and all the hippy punching, and the work he did/didn’t do and the way he is running Chicago.
FlipYrWhig
@Schlemizel: The blogosphere hated Rahm long before either of those things happened. And I think that colors the memory of 2005-2008: the good effects get to be Dean’s 50 State Strategy, and the bad ones get to be Rahm’s devious skulduggery, even though both Dean and Rahm were recruiting center-right candidates in red states.
Paul in KY
How about Gov. Bullock running?
Yatsuno
@Paul in KY: I think Bullock is better off staying put. The wingnuts run the legislature in Montana right now, and the Dem governours have been the only real firewall against that state going really crazy. That’s why there has been no expansion of Medicaid there despite it being probably one of the best things that could happen. Oddly enough there’s a single payer experiment going on there right now so stay tuned…
AliceBlue
If Walsh were a Republican, he would hunker down, stay in the race, proclaim that Jesus had forgiven him, and rack up a landslide win.
Suffern ACE
@AliceBlue: if only Walsh would have taken that route, rather than blaming it on a mental health condition.
Paul in KY
@Yatsuno: OK. Respect your opinions in general. I’m not too up on Montana.
cmorenc
@rikyrah:
I could respect Schweitzer’s decision if it truly amounted simply to being burned out from desire to run for further public office and rebalance himself toward a more normal life with more time for home and family life back in Montana, even while maintaining some political presence as a party activist and pundit. I could understand if Schweitzer was reluctant to uproot himself and family from Montana to Washington to the extent necessary for a serving US Senator, and didn’t want to put up with the hassle and frustrations.
HOWEVER, if Schweitzer’s decision is based on the notion that accepting the gig as potential junior US Senator from Montana would sidetrack his ambitions to run for President (or perhaps get the VP nomination) – he’s outright delusional and not the kind of team player we need, even in a President or Vice President.
JPL
@cmorenc: Maybe he’s hoping that Mitt will choose him next time around.
Cassidy
OT, open carry is only for white people apparently.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/08/08/cops-gun-down-ohio-man-holding-toy-rifle-in-walmart-like-he-was-not-even-human/
Elizabelle
@rikyrah:
Yes, re Hawaii. Have been thinking about Max or NotMax — whoever lives there. (Not necessarily on Hilo, though …) He’ll give us an update eventually.
Elizabelle
I like our chances better without Walsh on the ticket in Montana. Don’t give up hope there.
Montana is not Oklahoma. I don’t understand why voters in economic peril would want to reward the party that brought them two devastating wars and an economic collapse.
Go Democrats. Make your case, and say it proudly.
@Botsplainer:
RE the war colleges: yes, this is as much egg on them as on Walsh. He didn’t type in passages from some book long out of print. He used material that should have seemed familiar, and could have been checked out.
BGinCHI
Thomas McGuane is from MT.
He should run.
gene108
@WaterGirl:
I’ll figure it out soon enough. I just got it a week ago and have been spending most of my time playing Plants v Zombies.
gene108
@cmorenc:
Schweitzer, in what I’ve read about his post-governorship statements, seems to only be out for himself. His has a cushy lobbying job for an oil company and I do not think he wants to do more.
Cassidy
OT again, white suburbia is killin’ it today.
http://valleywag.gawker.com/smiling-young-white-people-make-app-for-avoiding-black-1617775138?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow
Mnemosyne
@Cassidy:
That asshole who called 911 managed to cause the deaths of two people — in the ensuing panic, a woman had a “medical emergency” (presumably a heart attack) and died.
Marc
@lol: I also see that nearly all that DCCC money came in the final week, once it was apparent that Yarmuth had a shot at unseating Northup. Not exactly a testimony to Emanuel’s foresight. His prior reluctance to fund Yarmuth is actually very well documented, which is why I used him as an example.
@FlipYrWhig: I would say Rahm’s current tenure as mayor of Chicago serves as a reminder that sometimes the blogosphere gets it right.
Maybe it’s time to retire the “Show us on the doll where Rahm touched you” tag?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Cassidy: Suburbia? Is the West Village suburban or is it DC? You need to get a handle on your terms.
rikyrah
@Cassidy:
Like you already didn’t know that.
FlipYrWhig
@Marc: I’m not a Rahm defender, but it’s funny (not funny-ha-ha but funny-peculiar) that Dean never gets tagged for the role he played in reaching out to center-right Democrats, especially Congressional candidates. It’s not like Dean was only recruiting liberals and Rahm was only sandbagging them. They were both looking to run moderates in red territory, just with two different strategies. Let’s put praise and blame where they belong. Patrick Murphy and Chris Carney and Jason Altmire were all Dean-sponsored and also members of the Blue Dog coalition.
lol
@Marc:
Pretty weak response. “He only jumped in with money when it could make a difference!”
Recall, your original claim:
$388K is an odd definition of “wouldn’t touch”.
How much money did Dean and the DNC spend in KY-03 in 2006?
This is the myth making I’m talking about.
Marc
@lol: That’s funny, in your earlier comment you seemed to understand that the DNC spent its money on party-building and state organizations, not direct expenditures on behalf of candidates.
Withholding money until after the candidate is already up 5-8 points is an odd definition of “jumped in when it could make a difference.”
By all means, keep spinning away.
rikyrah
Chicago folks..
Remember..
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Bud Billiken Parade
Marc
@FlipYrWhig: I agree. But the idea that Rahm did all the recruiting and Dean frittered away his dough is just as ridiculous as the converse.
rikyrah
If not for GOP sociopathic Governors, that Medicaid Number would be TWELVE MILLION!
……………………………………….
New Medicaid enrollments top 7 million under Obamacare
WASHINGTON Fri Aug 8, 2014 10:55am EDT
More than seven million Americans have gained health coverage through government programs including Medicaid since enrollment in Obamacare health insurance was launched October 1, the U.S. administration said on Friday.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said 7.2 million new participants in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program by June brought overall Medicaid enrollment to 66 million people.
The enrollees include uninsured Americans who gained coverage through traditional Medicaid, as well as a special Medicaid expansion in 26 of the 50 U.S. states under President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
Traditional Medicaid programs often cover only a patchwork of poor individuals, including pregnant women and disabled elderly.
The Obamacare expansion extends coverage to all Americans earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty line, or $15,521 for an individual and $31,720 for a family of four.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/08/us-usa-healthcare-medicaid-idUSKBN0G81LV20140808
lol
@Marc:
I understand that your original statement was complete bullshit and that you’re now frantically moving the goalposts. Why don’t you look up how much the DNC spent on party building in the entire state of Kentucky for the 2006 cycle? Maybe you can tell me what contribution those staffers made to Yarmuth’s victory.
In the real world, Yarmuth won by 3 points and by less than 6,000 votes.
Unlike most of Dean’s fans, I actually worked on campaigns during the 50SS era. Races weren’t won because the state party had the money to hire a couple local hacks; they were won because the DSCC and DCCC hired hundreds of staffers to supplement or, in some states, entirely replace the campaign’s efforts. The 50SS staff I encountered were obstacles to be worked around.
The 50SS program was terminated with good reason but Netroots is too in love with Dean to ever admit he did anything wrong.
FlipYrWhig
@Marc: OK, but I’m not sure how often anyone ever says _that_.
MomSense
@Marc:
It is actually quite common for the DGA, DSCC, and DCCC to require certain performance criteria to be met before they will contribute to a candidate. They may want to see a certain amount of money raised and number of donors. They may want to see a candidate reach a certain number in the polling. It is not uncommon for funds to come in at the end.
In terms of the DNC expenditures in the states, it was a mixed bag as lol discussed above.
Marc
@FlipYrWhig: This thread offers a couple of good examples from the guy who thinks candidate recruitment happens a week before election day.
justawriter
@lol: My experience was different working with campaigns from the union side. The state party was chronically underfunded until the 2004-6 elections and was finally able to recruit some stronger candidates who managed to defeat some entrenched incumbents in the state legislature, creating that bench we are always talking about. When OFA emerged, all that disappeared and the only OFA presence was a fax machine in a neighboring state, which spewed out PR on national shit that nobody locally was interested in. By 2012, all of the gains the party had made were pretty much wiped out, and the legislature is even worse than before.
Citizen Alan
Me, I’m still just furious that fucking plagiarism is a career-ending sin for a Democrat, but Republicans can have sex scandals and cruise to reelection.
Cassidy
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): Attitudes aren’t limited to geography.
lol
It’s also kind of funny to see Yarmuth portrayed a Dean guy considering his primary opponent was the darling of the Netroots at the time and was being endorsed by Dean for America, Paul Hackett, Kos and whatnot.
Bobby Thomson
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, but Schweitzer turned it down a third time.
Bobby Thomson
@rikyrah:
’cause he’s an asshole. SATSQ
Elizabelle
@Citizen Alan:
Meh. The flip side of that is Democrats don’t have clown car candidates.
Marc
@lol: Oh, I’m sure everybody here remembers netroots darling Andrew Horne, right? Me, I just remember that “Dean for America” wasn’t actually “Dean for America” in 2006, when Dean was already at the DNC.
Cris (without an H)
Keenan had already opted out as of last night, at least according to her sister (via NBCMontana).
I assume Bohlinger will be a front-runner, which will be interesting because he raised a minor stink this spring when the party endorsed Walsh before the primary.
Cris (without an H)
@Paul in KY: Bullock says no.
angler
@lol: Intramural rage is making you roll all firebaggers into one big angry ball of ingratitude. Hackett ran in Ohio, not KY. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hackett_(politician)
Rahm is awesome, awesome. A freaking shame that he got railroaded out of the White House given the bang up job he did as chief of staff. And Kos and Dean, fer chrissakes, they only wanted pot smokers and commies for candidates.
It’s like the last decade of Democratic Party politics never happened and we are still stuck right smack in the aftermath of the 1972 McGovern campaign. And we always will be.
We used to have ore of these threads on BJ. Thanks for the nostalgia.
yourpooruncle
I’m one of those who inhabit what I like to call the Montana Diaspora – living in another state presently, but regarding Montana as my home, ultimately. A few thoughts on the present situation for Dems in Mt.:
There are a couple of strong, albeit-unknown women in Montana who would be willing to run and would be good voices, in addition to/other than Keenan. Rep. Amanda Curtis of Butte and Rep. Franke Wilmer of Bozeman seem willing, for example. I feel very strongly that it should be a woman who the Dems choose, because:
1. It would be a first (or at least a first in a long while) for Montana.
2. Even if she loses, assuming she runs a good race, it makes for legacy momentum in the future for her.
3. The most interesting campaigners in the Democratic party right now are women; Elizabeth Warren, Jennifer Granholm and Alison Grimes, to name a few. If Mt. Dems pick a woman and Elizabeth Warren comes to town, the earth would move a little bit, because Elizabeth Warren; plus, Montanans like a person who don’t mind beatin’ down your Wall Street dickhead when she gets a chance.
4. Daines is a rich Tea Party tool and, as luck would have it, not the cleverest guy in the House of Representatives. Whoever gets the nomination should go after him every day until election day with the question, “How in God’s name could you vote for turning down the ACA Medicare money, which is, as we speak, causing human misery in our state and perhaps hastening the financial demise of rural clinics and hospitals?”
Finally, FWIW, Tester is no Ted Kennedy, but he’s got liberal cred for a Montana senator and he got into the senate by beating a Republican, Conrad Burns.
Also worth remembering, one of the greatest Senators in the history of that body was Mike Mansfield, a Democrat and all-around “real deal”, as we say in Montana.
socraticsilence
keenan is a hack, Juneau would be a great choice and it would let her build name recognition for a House run if Lewis doesn’t win in November.
socraticsilence
keenan would be pointless, Juneau would be a great choice and it would let her build name recognition for a House run if Lewis doesn’t win in November.