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

23 March 2017

Quist & national Dems, mail ballot hearing, unmask thugs bill

With Democrats like these, Rob Quist has enemies in both parties. National Democrats, especially the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), are slow walking help for Rob Quist, reports Logicosity this morning:

…as of this writing, the DCCC is conducting some type of poll to determine if making an investment in Montana is worthwhile. It seems hell-bent on replicating mistakes that have yielded dismal results in Congressional races around the country in the past decade.

There isn’t time for that anal retentive approach. This is a short campaign. Time’s a-wasting. Yes, rushing forward without marking every box on the standard campaign checklist is risky — but keeping the checkbook locked until it’s too late to affect the election is a bet that always loses.

Special election mail ballot bill House hearing is today. The bill, SB-305, probably should be named “The County Clerk and Recorders Relief Act of 2017,” as it’s intended to let local election officials conduct the special election on the cheap. State Republican Party chief Jeff Essmann opposes the bill, contending it will help Democrats. Many Democrats agree with Essmann. I don’t think it will help either party. The only beneficiaries are the C&Rs.

The special election is an unplanned expense, and a significant one. In budgeting terms, it’s akin to a natural disaster: expensive, but not predictable. The legislature should appropriate a million dollars, or so, to pay for the election, taking the money out of the target budget surplus.

Rep. Barry Usher finally has a good idea. You may remember Usher. He’s the first term Republican from Billings, and owner of a motorcycle dealership, who requested a bill that would have banned bicycles and pedestrians from most of Montana’s two-lane highways. That bill went nowhere while his reputation went south.

Now, his reputation may head north, at least in some quarters. He’s introduced HB-571, which makes wearing a mask during “the commission of an offense against pubic order” a felony:

Section 1. Concealing identity during commission of offense against public order.

  1. A person commits the offense of concealing a person’s identity during the commission of an offense against public order if the person wears a mask, hood, or other device that covers, hides, or conceals a portion of the person’s face for the purpose of evading or escaping discovery, recognition, or identification while committing an offense described in Title 45, chapter 8. [Link added by FM.]

  2. A person convicted of a violation of subsection (1) is guilty of a felony and shall be fined an amount not to exceed $5,000 or be imprisoned in the state prison for a term not to exceed 5 years, or both.

If HB-571 is amended to (a) limit the law to banning masks, such as are worn by the black clad anarchists who vandalized Seattle and attacked neo-Nazis in Sacramento last year, and (b) reduce the offense to a misdemeanor, I’ll be inclined to support it. Similar laws to keep the Klu Klux Klan from hiding behind masks were necessary and effective.

In the meantime, when masked protesters begin misbehaving, the police must arrest the thugs on the spot, demask and photograph them, and heave them into the paddy wagon for a quick trip to the slammer.