Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
More pieces of the 2014 election puzzle fell into place this week with numerous filings. A major — and unpleasant — surprise was John Driscoll’s entry into the Democratic primary for Montana’s lone seat in the U.S. House. It was not a surprise that political war horse John Bohlinger filed for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate so that the voters could return him to the pasture instead of returning there on his own volition. Drew Turiano became the fifth, and surely the most colorful, Republican to file for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House. In the Flathead, Democrats are within one person of fielding candidates in all of the county’s legislative districts, not an easy task given the Flathead’s strong preference for Republicans. And at the end of the roundup, what a good friend says is the best backhanded compliment he’s ever read.
House District 7 (map) is the old downtown Kalispell district. Covering just three square miles, it’s one of the most compact districts in Montana. It’s also a swing district that can be, and has been, won by Democrats even in midterm elections. But as of 7 March, in one of the most perplexing mysteries of Campaign 2014, no one had filed for the Democratic nomination. Frank Garner and Ronalee Skees filed in early Janaury for the HD-7 Republican primary.
An Elizabeth A. Cummings of Kalispell yesterday filed for Senate District 4 (map), which comprises HD-7 and adjacent to the west HD-8.
Senate District 5 (map) is a two-county district composed of HD-9 and HD-10. A candidate must live in the district to represent it. So far, former state senator Bob Keenan of Bigfork and three-term state representative Scott Reichner, also of Bigfork, have filed for the Republican primary.
SD-5 is a deep red Republican district, but SD-4 is a purple district that could swing to a Democrat under the right circumstances.
He was thinking about not filing given the head start he thought John Walsh obtained after being appointed Senator. But the 77-year-old war horse decided he wasn’t ready to return to the pastures of boredom, so he galloped down to the Secretary of State’s office yesterday and filed for the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate, joining Dirk Adams, who filed in mid-February, and Walsh, who has yet to file.
Update. Walsh filed electronically from Butte today, before a crowd at the hall of the Plumbers and Pipefitters #41, his father’s union. Insofar as I know, he did not deliver remarks that explained why he voted again Debo Adegbile.
Walsh will file on Monday, the last day to file, probably with a flourish and a small crowd of supporters in an attempt to generate a news story and inspire his campaign organization. If he makes a little speech on the Capitol steps, he should explain why he voted against Debo Adegbile.
John M. Campbell of Kalispell filed for PSC District 5 Republican primary yesterday, joining Derek Skees and Brad Johnson. Campbell is evidently a trucker. The PSC regulates motor carriers, so he would have a direct interest in, and knowledge of, trucking regulation. He’ll say he’s running to win, but I suspect he’s running a soapbox candidacy to draw attention to issues affecting his business, a perfectly honorable thing to do.
On the Democratic side of PSC-5, termed-out Helena legislator Rep. Galen Hollenbaugh filed. He’ll be the Democratic nominee, but he might face token opposition in the primary, not necessarily a bad thing as it would enable Hollenbaugh to raise more money.
Six years ago, John Driscoll filed for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House, which was being actively sought by Helena attorney Jim Hunt. Driscoll didn’t lift a finger to campaign, but he won the primary on the basis of name recognition from service in the legislature and on the PSC. After winning the primary, he didn’t lift a finger, or raise a penny, or do anything that resembled campaigning. Not surprisingly, he lost by a double landslide to Denny Rehberg. A good many Democrats thought Driscoll set out to lose the election, and hoped they never again would see his name on a ballot.
Never again still hasn’t come. Driscoll filed for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. House yesterday. Once again, he’s not raising money for the primary, but if he wins he told the Associated Press he’ll deign to raise money for the general election in November.
According to Charlie Johnson of the Lee papers, Driscoll almost spared Democrats his candidacy:
Driscoll said he has attended a number of meetings of Republican groups around the state because he is so deeply concerned over what he called the Tea Party’s attempted takeover of the party. He said he even considered filing this year as a Republican, but in the end decided to run again as a Democrat.
“I thought about running as a non-Tea Party option for Republicans,” Driscoll said.
Instead, he told the AP he has another plan for isolating the teabaggers:
He says if elected, he intends to ask Montana Democrats to expand the party to include non-tea party Republicans and change their name to the Democratic Republican Party.
That idea won’t offend everyone. But it does offend me because it rests on a false premise posited by two rogue Democrats, George Wallace and Ralph Nader.
In 1968, Wallace averred there wasn’t a “dime’s worth of difference” between the Republican and Democratic parties. Thirty-two years later, Nader, running as a holier-than-any-Democrat independent, a role in which he excelled, made much the same argument as he took just enough votes from Al Gore to inflict George W. Bush on the nation. There are still people who believe they did right by voting for Nader, so Driscoll could receive some support. An appalling thought? Of course. But also a genuine possibility.
But he won’t receive any support from me. I find it hard to believe that Driscoll’s candidacy is anything but another exercise in political malevolence.
Fortunately, John Lewis’ campaign is much stronger than was Jim Hunt’s six years ago. Lewis is raising serious money, securing valuable endorsements, and making a lot of friends. He’ll beat Driscoll, but the margin may be closer than commonsense would predict.
Most of the five GOP candidates for the U.S. House nomination are pretty far out on the right. So is Turiano, who received 10 percent of the vote in the 2012 Republican primary for Secretary of State, but the Helena real estate investor with the Telly Sevalas haircut is also pretty far out in his own right. Now that he’s filed for the primary, he’s toned down his website, but here’s some of what he said on it eight days before Christmas last year (download PDFed pages, 2.3 MB):
I will be the voice to all the voiceless babies, who savagely get aborted by the millions each year.
I will be an advocate to those Americans who desperately want a moratorium on all immigration because they know about the kind of damage our civilization is undertaking through multiculturalism.
And finally, I will be a strong supporter of nullification (states striking down unconstitutional federal laws like ObamaCare and Roe v. Wade) because I know that states must be strong again in order for them to be a bulwark against the Leviathan that is the federal government.
Please go to the issues section of this website to learn a lot more about where I stand on many other important issues that face our country like gay marriage, creationism, Americaʼs debt and deficit, the Patriot Act, NDAA, guns etc.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
If you truly want a Christian Tea Party Conservative Republican like me in the U.S. Congress, please tell all your friends and family about my campaign.
Actually, in his endorsements chronology, he penned one of the best backhanded compliments ever:
I have dealt with the awful disease of alcoholism with members of my extended family, and the first casualty in that conflict is always the truth and where, sadly it is often the last affliction to heal. I have been praying for Brad and his progress since his first series of speeches during his Sec State campaign in 2012, in which he identified himself as a recovering alcoholic. I am proud of his reputed success to date, and pray that he continues to win in that struggle.
Brad is Brad Johnson, against whom Skees is running for the Republican nomination for PSC District 5. Expect a spirited campaign.
