Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
There are five statewide, one regional, and five Flathead County elections that Flathead Memo will be watching on Election Night.
Incumbent Mike Wheat versus Lawrence Vandyke. A well-liked man with a splendid judicial temperament, Wheat has plenty of legal experience. Vandyke, a much younger man with modest legal experience, especially in Montana, is a tea party ideologue with heavy backing from business interests and social conservatives. The contest has attracted much national attention, both for its cost and the meddling mailer from rogue political scientists at Stanford and Dartmouth.
Senate. Had Democrat Max Baucus sought another term, he would have won a close election. But after raising $5 million for his re-election campaign, he opted for retirement. In an effort to help then Lt. Governor John Walsh’s bid to win the seat he was vacating, Baucus became ambassador to China and resigned from the Senate. Gov. Steve Bullock appointed Walsh to the Senate. Unfortunately, Walsh helped himself to the words of others when he wrote a paper for his masters degree from the Army War College, a transgression that, when discovered, forced him to withdraw from the election. The war college defrocked him of his degree. Butte legislator Amanda Curtis replaced Walsh, mounting an impressive campaign. But it won’t be enough. Rep. “Shutdown” Steve Daines, probably the most conservative man ever to represent Montana, will win, probably with 55–60 percent of the vote.
House. Former Republican state senator Ryan Zinke, a retired Navy Seal who never lets you forget what he did in the Navy, is running five to ten points ahead of Democrat John Lewis, who worked for Max Baucus but is no Baucus clone. Lewis has won the endorsements of the Billings Gazette, Bozeman Chronicle, Montana Standard, and Helena Independent Record. In a Presidential election, Lewis would be favored by a few points. However, in this year’s midterms, a betting man would place his money on Zinke, but he wouldn’ place very much of it
LR-126, which would end Election Day voter registration, was put on the ballot by Republican legislators who suspect that Election Day registrants are irresponsible procrastinators whose moral laxity includes voting for Democrats. No campaign for LR-126 has been mounted, but one against it has. LR-126 appears to lack majority support. Let’s hope so.
CI-45 would amend Montana’s constitution to change the state auditor’s name to Commissioner of Security and Insurance. It’s a good idea, with overwhelming bipartisan support in the legislature. But a similar amendment failed in 2006, and CI-45 probably will fail tomorrow, mostly because good ideas are not self-adopting. No one is campaigning for CI-45.
District map. The PSC is a regulatory agency. Commissioners have much less discretion than legislators, and should be appointed on the basis of their professional experience and skills. Instead, they’re chosen in partisan elections. Both candidates for the PSC-5 position have experience as elected public officials. Republican Brad Johnson, who defeated Derek Skees in the primary, served as Montana’s Secretary of State from 2005 to 2009. Democrat Galen Hollenbaugh is serving his fourth term as a state representative in Helena. Both promise to keep utility rate increases as low as possible. The chief difference is that Hollenbaugh is much more friendly toward alternative energy (mostly solar and wind) while Johnson is an oil and gas man. The Flathead Electric Cooperative is not regulated by the PSC, but it should be.
HD-5 (map) comprises Whitefish and adjacent urbanized areas. Incumbent Democrat Ed Lieser, a moderate with a strong campaign organization, faces Republican Doug Adams, a landscaper who believes the recession of 2008 was caused in large part by social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare. If Democrats turn out as they did in 2006, Lieser wins. If Democrats turn out as they did in 2010, Adams wins.
Voting Aye on this referendum won’t affect our pocketbooks immediately. It will simply give the school district a green light to use money it already has to purchase a tract of land south of Kalispell for a new elementary school. But if this referendum does pass, it will be followed by a Bond election that will affect our pocketbooks. I commend the district for putting the issue on the Presidential general election ballot.
If passed, this referendum would establish a special countywide district to fund the 911 center. Residential property owners would be nicked for $25 per lot per year. Commercial units would be assessed $50 per unit up to a maximum of 30 units. I’m voting against this. It’s a regressive tax, and it places too much of the funding burden on county residents and not enough on city residents.
This ballot measure authorizes the tax mills necessary to raise $736,000 a year to fund emergency medical services. Put another, it’s an ambulance tax. The mill rate for 2014 would be 18.7 mills, which would raise the tax on a $100,000 home by approximately $25 per year. Like all real estate taxes, it’s regressive, inflicting the greatest pain on property owners with small fixed incomes.
Voters can vote for up to three of the four nonpartisan candidates. Voters who support the Flathead Water Compact should consider not voting for current state senator Verdell Jackson (R-Kalispell), whose opposition to the compact is intense, philosophical, and by all appearances, intractable.
