4 January 2019 — 0400 mst

Friday roundup

Montana’s legislature convenes its 2019 session Monday. It has 90 legislative days to work through as many as 3,018 bills. Apart from the budget, the major issues will be expanded Medicaid, which expires at the end of June, attempts to impose draconian limits on prescribing narcotics, and the usual attempts to enact a deeply conservative social agenda.

Flathead Memo will examine many of those bills, as well as some others, among them bills to replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day, to phaseout expanded polystyrene (colloquially but wrongly called styrofoam; Styrofoam™ is Dow Chemical’s registered trademark for extruded polystyrene), and to legalize some sales of raw milk, a menace to public health.

Will Corey Stapleton stay in the race for governor?

Probably, but I can imagine a scenario in which Greg Gianforte declares he’s running for governor, polls reveal he’s likely to win the nomination by a landslide, and Stapleton decides to run for re-election for MT SecState. Filing doesn’t start for another year, so there’s plenty of time for the political landscape to change.

Meanwhile, if you haven’t read it yet, I recommend Don Pogreba’s summation of the case against electing Stapleton governor, and Holly Michel’s full of juicy quotes news story on Stapleton’s run for governor.

Elizabeth Warren shouldn’t be the Democratic nominee for President

I like Warren. I like her politics and her style. She’s smart, feisty, likable, and not intimidated easily. But at 69, she’s getting long in the tooth. Since 1960, Democrats elected to their first term as President have been young. Three were in their forties. Warren, Sanders, and Biden, need to step aside for a younger nominee.

Warren, as well as Gillibrand, et al, may also be at a disadvantage because she’s a woman. Democratic voters who want to win to make policy instead of identity history will take that into account.

Meanwhile, President Trump’s approval rating is ≈ 12 points underwater. That makes winning a second term harder, but not impossible. As in 2016, narrow wins for Trump in enough states could carry the Electoral College despite placing second in the popular vote. The Democrats need an electoral college strategy, but they’re pursuing a popular vote strategy that could lead to the nomination of another loser like Hillary Clinton.

The PSC should investigate CenturyLink’s outage

Last Friday, I tried logging into my bank’s electronic banking service, but couldn’t. CenturyLink’s malfunction disabled the log-in software. I had to pay my bill with a credit card, which cost me another $3.50. Now there are reports that although Montana’s Public Service Commission has received a glut of complaints about CenturyLink’s miserable service, the PSC is inclined not to investigate.

I’m inclined to think the PSC is not just dropping the ball but is refusing to catch it. Did CenturyLink do due diligence, but still get taken down by an Act of God, or did CenturyLink screw-up? Answering that question is within the PSC’s purview. Pick up the ball and run with it, commissioners.