3 July 2018 — 1005 mdt

Political briefs

Today, a look at a parade in Kalispell, a speech in Great Falls, and the proposal to hold a special legislative session in July to tamper with two citizens initiatives.

How many people will watch Kalispell’s Independence Day parade tomorrow?

A friend active in politics put that question to me last week, knowing I have experience counting crowds and photographing parades. After measuring the parade route and sidewalk space via Google Earth, and counting a couple of blocks of spectators in my photographs of the 2016 parade, I estimated 1,600 to 2,000 along the entire route.

The beginning of Kalispell’s 2016 Independence Day parade, taken near the southeast corner of Main and Center. This is not the image I used for my count, but it provides a good look at the crowd. Larger image.

Yesterday I received from a political campaign an invitation to march with its candidate in Kalispell’s parade, which, the campaign predicted, would be watched by 5,000–10,000. And in little Bigfork, the campaign predicted 7,000 spectators. These are Trumpian estimates.

The crowds at the parades could be photographed by drones, or by photographers riding in a flatbed truck. Counting people in photographs is tedious, but it’s the best way to get an accurate count. Do the parades’ sponsors and participants want an accurate count, or do they want no organized count, thus preserving their ability to make wildly exaggerated estimates for propaganda purposes?

“And together, we can make America great again—”

The location for the delivery of that quote? Great Falls, Montana. No, I don’t have an advance copy of President Trump’s speech for his visit there on Thursday, 5 July. That quote’s from the speech delivered on 28 October 1982 by President Ronald Reagan, who was stumping for Larry Williams, the Republican financier trying to unseat Democratic Sen. John Melcher. Reagan spoke in complete sentences and paragraphs. He did not urge his supporters to rough-up Democrats. Five days later, Melcher was re-elected with 54.5 percent of the vote.

My thanks to MSU’s David Parker for steering me to Reagan’s speech.

Proposed special session gets no love from the MT Standard & Billings Gazette

State Sen. Llew Jones (R-Conrad) and several Republican legislative leaders — not among them, Speaker of the House Austin Knudsen — are trying to call a special legislative session to approve referenda they claim are needed to mitigate citizens initiatives I-185 (extending expanded Medicaid and raising tobacco taxes) and I-186 (prohibiting mining that requires the eternal cleanup of water). Legislators have until 15 July to return their ballots. The special session would start the next day.

As per Part V, Section 6, of the Montana Constitution, special sessions can be convened by the governor or “…at the written request of a majority of the members.”

Both the Montana Standard (Butte) and the Billings Gazette have published scathing editorials denouncing the special session. Describing the session as a “crackpot plan,” the Standard observed:

You can bet that if the Republicans retain control of the Montana Legislature, there’ll be a blizzard of bills to eviscerate or repeal I-185 and I-186 if they are approved by the voters in November, which is likely. Montanans like health care, and they don’t like mines that pollute in perpetuity. The best way to preserve health insurance and keep water clean is to (a) approve I-185 and I-186 in November, and (b) equip the Montana legislature with a working majority of Democratic legislators.