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Political Dynamite

In a follow-up story in the Great Falls Tribune, pollsters speculate on how Morrison's acknowledged extramarital affair, and his behavior during a federal probe against the woman's fiancee, will impact the ongoing race for Montana's U.S. Senate seat.

A political science professor at Montana State University-Billings said that the political "chess game" had changed entirely, while others believe the news could have little impact on the race. Meanwhile, top state Democrats, including Morrison's primary opponent, state Senate President Jon Tester, say little about the revealed relationship, stating only that it was a "personal matter."

Political Dynamite

In a story broken this morning by Lee Newspapers State Bureau reporters Mike Dennison and Charles Johnson, State Auditor John Morrison, the top Democratic candidate contending for Conrad Burns' seat in the U.S. Senate, admitted that an extramarital affair was part of the reason he brought in outside counsel in an investigation of businessman David Tacke. Tacke is now serving a sentence in federal prison for fraud.

Morrison has been leading in recent polls against his Democratic contenders, including State Senate President Jon Tester, Paul Richards, Robert Candee, and Ken Marcure. How the news will impact Morrison's campaign remains unclear.

women in montana politics

On New West this week, readers have been wondering where the women are at – at least in state politics.

Out of Utah, Tracy Medley wrote a story on the state Legislature, where the number of women representatives has dropped significantly. Tracy points to Utah’s red state status as a possible reason for the decline.

But Susan Carroll, a Rutgers professor and Center for American Women and Politics scholar, has observed the number of women in state government is decreasing in red and blue states alike (although the solid-red Southern states do have the fewest women jumping into the political ring).

Carroll blames a different bogeyman: a lack of active recruitment. According to Carroll’s research, women are less likely than men to launch their political career on their own – they need encouragement and mentoring.

Here in Montana, election season is gearing up, and 26-year-old Michele Reinhart, graduate student and former environmental lobbyist in Helena, has decided to run as a Democrat for House District 97 in Missoula.

If she wins, she will be the youngest woman in the Montana Legislature.

As a young woman who decided to throw her hat in with the good ol’ boys in the Montana House, we asked her why, as a full-time, twentysomething student, she made the choice to run for state political office. [more]

commentary

Last February, I got a traffic ticket in town. The kind judge took pity on me and gave me a reprieve: if I didn’t get another ticket within a six-month period, it wouldn’t go on my driving record.

So around Missoula, I am now driving very, very slowly. In fact, if you don’t look closely, you can barely tell the car is actually moving.

But what I’ve discovered by accident, during my vehicular house arrest, is this: driving the speed limit makes out-of-state drivers insane with rage.

So I came up with an idea – if we want to slow growth in our town, maybe we should just try setting the speed limit at 25 miles per hour. That would probably send the out-of-towners – at least the impatient ones – fleeing like angry locusts. [more]

Walmart wars

Wal-Mart supposedly plans to build a new store north of Hamilton, Mont., although no official documents or permits have been filed with the county planning offices.

This comes only weeks after Bitterroot Valley citizens drafted an ordinance that would limit retail stores to 60,000 square feet.

The battle is joined – but Wal-Mart officials aren’t taking the gathering opposition lying down. The company has sent out a flurry of mailings to local residents, asking for their support for the new store.
[more]

The housing market

The real estate market has continued to defy the doom-and-gloom forecasts of an imminent crash, but the consensus of at least a significant slowdown is growing. In Business Week, commentators predict that a 20 percent drop would bring housing prices closer to normal trends. Ouch – that's quite a rough landing.

healthy forests debate

Bitterroot National Forest officials announced Thursday they have come to a final decision on a plan for logging and thinning on 6,000 acres in the Middle East Fork drainage.

The Middle East Fork project, officially proposed in 2004, is the first large-scale project under Bush's Healthy Forests Restoration Act, designed to streamline the review process for fuel reduction work on forest lands.

The Middle East Fork project has sparked vigorous protests from environmental groups, concerned over logging in old-growth stands and areas with fragile soils under the Forest Service's proposed plan.
[more]

the meth problem in montana

In a sad and shocking story out of the Bitterroot, the Republic's Timothy Mitchell reports on a meth-addicted mom who received a 20-year sentence for giving meth to her own children.

According to the article, Donna Summers blamed the children for moving back into the house and childhood abuse in her past.

"I need help," she told the judge.

Summers and her family, including her stepson, husband, and daughter, were arrested after the suicide of a 15-year-old Corvallis girl prompted the Ravalli County Sheriff's Office to announce a crackdown on meth distributors in the valley.

energy development

Energy officials told Gov. Schweitzer that Montana's lengthy regulation process might be holding up new projects, the AP's Becky Bohrer reports today.

The governor asked energy representatives in a sit-down meeting to discuss energy development in Montana, particularly coal-bed methane production. Their take: the permit process was slow compared to other states.

A permit that would take up to two years in Montana would take only three to six months in Wyoming, noted one energy official. Wyoming and Montana are already embroiled in a dispute over the environmental effects of coalbed methane drilling. A coalition of Montana ranchers, landowners and environmentalists filed a petition with the State Board of Environmental Review, claiming Wyoming's methane extraction companies were contaminating irrigation streams and draining groundwater.

The Board rejected the petitioners' request to force the energy companies to reinject the wastewater back into the ground, but board members plan to issue new standards for water treatment in September.

No one likes slow bureaucracies, but it appears Wyoming and Montana may not see exactly eye-to-eye on what constitutes regulation on large-scale energy projects.

delisting the wolf

In a story out of Billings, the AP takes a look at who will pay to manage wolf populations in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming once they leave the endangered species list.

Since wolves were reintroduced in the three states over a decade ago, the federal government has largely footed the approximately $2.7 million annual bill for their recovery, an amount one wolf specialist called “ridiculous.”

''The goal is to recover species and give them to the states, and we can then put our resources into species with other needs,'' said a Fish and Wildlife spokeswoman.

Idaho officials, for their part, said they won’t set up a management plan without the federal funding in their pockets to do so.

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