14 April 2018 — 0937 mdt
Saturday updates
More on John Melcher. At the Montana Free Press, Charles Johnson, the dean of Montana’s political reporters, has an excellent remembrance of former Sen. John Melcher, who died Thursday.
Pro-firearms rally in Kalispell. It begins at noon today in Depot Park. Don’t expect a counter-demonstration. Instead, critics of the rally have been urged to avoid downtown Kalispell during the gunpowder hour, a safety precaution that may not be necessary and that could mean less business for downtown merchants. One speaker at the high school student led rally will be 18-year-old Joey Chester, a Columbia Falls High graduate now enrolled at Montana State University. Chester is running as a Republican against incumbent Democrat Zach Brown in Bozeman’s heavily Democratic House District 63.
Morning Consult poll has good news for Jon Tester. His approval numbers are way up:
Four senators posted net increases of 10 points or greater last quarter. Vulnerable Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) led the way with a 16 point increase, vaulting him from the bottom 10 to the top 10. Fifty-six percent of Montanans approve of Tester, compared with one-third who don’t.
But the poll reports red state Democrats Claire McCaskill (MO), Joe Manchin (WV), and Tammy Baldwin (WI), are among the ten least popular Senators. All are up for re-election. Along with Joe Donnelly (IN) and Bill Nelson (FL), they’re in trouble. The GOP could actually increase its majority in the Senate.
Tester continues to raise much more money than the four Republicans running against him. That will change after the primary, especially if polls indicate the contest is tightening. That’s why Tester is running harder than a man who thinks the sheriff is gaining on him.
Proposed ballot measure to extend expanded Medicaid in Montana remains in legal limbo. Here’s the status report from MT’s SecST:
- Ballot Issue #9
- Subject: Raise tobacco taxes to fund health care programs.
- Contact Person: Jessie Luther
- Sponsor: Robert Shepard, MD
- Type: Statutory initiative
- Received by SOS: February 22, 2018
- Status: Sponsor responded to Legislative Services Division's recommendations and submitted ballot issue for legal sufficiency review by Attorney General.
- Next Step: Attorney General will review ballot issue text and issue a legal sufficiency opinion.
The clock is running. Attorney General Fox may take his own sweet time to review the measure, and he could delay declaring it legally sufficient by demanding niggling changes. Collecting enough signatures to qualify for the ballot will require a tremendous effort. I have doubts the measure will make the ballot.