A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.

15 January 2015

Did Tutvedt & Salomon conspire with CSKT to promote majority rule?

Did State Sen. Bruce Tutvedt (R-Kalispell) and State Rep. Dan Salomon (R-Ronan) conspire with the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes to block a rules change in the Montana House of Representatives so that a mere majority of that chamber could approve the Flathead Water Compact? The anti-compact group Concerned Citizens of Western Montana — which is hopping mad that Montana’s Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission approved the renegotiated compact; see today’s post, Troubled Waters, at Montana Cowgirl — thinks so, and explained why on 8 January:

Last summer we reported that CSKT lobbyist Senator Bruce Tutvedt made several promises claims to the CSKT in exchange for $22,000 to support his various political action committees. These funds were used to fund campaigns against Montana conservative republicans who opposed the CSKT Compact and to try to elect pro-compact republicans or democrats to the 2015 legislature. Tutvedt was censored by the Flathead County republicans for what looks like, walks like, and talks like a bribe duck.

As part of the promise to the CSKT, Senator Tutvedt named Dan Salomon as his partner and spoke of Mr. Salomon’s intent to “deal with the 60-vote House rules problem” so that the CSKT Compact could be blasted to the floor of the House with a simple majority vote, or 51 members. From Tutvedt’s comments, it is easy to picture Salomon in his usual peacock fashion, boasting that he has the votes to support the rule change.

Tuesday, that initiative failed in the House Rules Committee. Therefore, the 60 votes, or 3/5 of the House, still applies to any attempt to blast the CSKT Compact out onto the floor if it should fail in committee.

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Update: We are hearing some disappointing and late breaking news out of Helena today. Apparently the Democrats proposed a change in the rules that allows each caucus “six silver bullets” for a bill that fails in a committee to be blasted out onto the floor with a bare majority (51 votes). This will undoubtedly be used to get the CSKT Compact and medicaid–two democrat/rino priorities–onto the House floor, and in the Compact’s case, is an attempt to blunt public comment in the Committee hearings. As soon as we know what republicans caved on this we will report. What this means is that (a) we must make sure we send a thousand people to Helena for each hearing on the proposed compact bill and must flood the House chambers if this action is taken; and (b) those republicans who supported any blast motion must be reminded that recall is still an option for citizens. These kind of political games being played by our legislature is exactly the reason the Montana Land and Water Alliance has been formed because we will take legal action if this compact passes in the legislature.

[Capitalization in the original preserved. Highlighting by Flathead Memo.]

It’s not everyday one finds a group of irrigators who believe that majority rule is all wet. But these irrigators do. And when it comes to managing irrigation projects, they prefer one acre, one vote, to one man, one vote. See Exhibit 18 (PDF), page 5.