My Page: Robert Struckman
Montana Election 2008
Schweitzer: Don’t Read Too Much Into GOP Legislative Victories
A day after Gov. Brian Schweitzer won a second term, and unofficial results showed Democratic candidates sweeping all but one statewide office, Republicans still cheered victories in the state House and Senate.
"Did we fail? Of course not." said Schweitzer. The Republican wins were not decisive. Republicans control the Senate with a 27-23 margin, and the House appears split 50-50.
For the first time since 1948, one party holds all of Montana's Land Board offices -- which include the governor's office, the secretary of state, attorney general, state auditor and superintendent of public instruction. The Land Board makes decisions on oil leases and logging on state land.
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Montana Election 2008
GOP Wins Montana Senate, Tied in the HouseLate on election night, Montana voters -- who historically have shown themselves to be inveterate ticket-splitters -- seemed to have handed resounding victories to Democrats, especially as the results of statewide candidates were tallied.
But the slower count on the legislative districts have given Tuesday's late night tale another twist. It seems the GOP has recaptured control of the Montana Senate, with a 27-23 majority, and will likely be deadlocked with Democrats in the House, tied at 50-50. The party that controls the House gets to set the agenda in this winter's legislative session. As for the Senate, all of the governor's appointments to department heads, boards and commissions get approval there.
"First of all, to have John McCain win, with very little presence, shows Montana is still, philosophically, a center-right state. We just haven't done a good job of winning elections recently," said state Republican chairman Erik Iverson. "The Democrats had every single structural advantage -- four times the money. For the first time in history, a presidential candidate set up shop in the state, with all these offices, and for seven or eight months raided all this money, put in all this structure. What we've learned is something we've known for a long time, Montanans are ticket-splitters. You had people voting for Denny Rehberg and Barack Obama, for John McCain and Brian Schweitzer."
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Election 2008
Montana State Races Go Democratic
Near midnight on Tuesday night, it seemed Democrats had swept all but one of Montana's statewide offices in what seems like a stunning referendum of the state's modern Republican Party, leaving some GOP leaders wondering how to return to politics with something like an appealing message. Yet even as state Democrats credited the Obama effect for much of their strength, the Democratic Presidential-elect appeared likely to lose the state to John McCain.
Gov. Brian Schweitzer handily beat opponent Roy Brown of Billings, and Democrats dominated the rest of the ticket.
Steve Bullock was well ahead of Tim Fox for Attorney General, Monica Lindeen was beating Duane Grimes for State Auditor, Denise Juneau easily prevailed over Elaine Sollie Herman for Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Mike McGrath topped Ron Waterman for Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court. (All with more than 70 percent of precincts reporting.) Linda McCullough was running ahead of Brad Johnson for Secretary of State but the race remained close.
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Montana Election 2008
Juneau Wins Office of Public Instruction, a First
At midnight, when it appeared Denise Juneau had won Superintendent of Public Instruction in Montana in Tuesday's election, she was poised to become the first Native American to win a statewide executive level position in Montana.
"As an American Indian, the Montana voters didn't pigeon-hole us, put is into one category," Juneau said. "It was based on who was qualified. It's very heartening, and it's significant to Montana right now."
On a night when voters mostly handed Montana's statewide races to Democrats -- even as voters seemed to split their votes down the ticket on legislative races -- the state embraced this first with only a touch of fanfare and controversy.
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While Montana's Republican Party has scaled back expectations over the course of this political season and Democrats seem primed to win big -- both parties have a lot to lose on Election Day.
If Barack Obama beats John McCain in Big Sky Country, and a blue wave washes over Montana's statewide offices and the legislature, it could well be interpreted that the state's voters granted a resounding endorsement to Democrats and thumped the state's modern Republican Party.
"If we lose both of those, that will obviously be a very hard blow to the Republican Party in the state, no doubt about it," said Brad Anderson, head of Yellowstone County GOP.
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Former Sen. Max Baucus staffer Jim Messina has been named on a list of top posts and political insiders who would serve close to Barack Obama if he wins Tuesday's election, according to Washington-based news service Politico.
Messina, who grew up in Boise, has spent most of his professional career in politics in Montana. He serves as one of Obama's two chiefs of staff. Politico named him as one of four candidates for Obama's deputy chief of staff.
Notably absent from the list were Govs. Brian Scheitzer and Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming, possibly because both would rather govern in their home states than serve in Washington. Schweitzer earned himself a spot in the national political spotlight with a rousing speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August, and Freudenthal endorsed Obama early and often, one of the first of the western governors to do so.
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In the thick of the financial turmoil, Big Sky Resort near Bozeman did what others couldn't -- arranged for a $74 million cash infusion.
On Oct. 7, Big Sky's parent company, Michigan-based Boyne Resorts inked a lease-buy-back deal with CNL Lifestyle Properties, a Florida-based Real Estate Investment Trust, said Big Sky spokesman Dax Schieffer.
One insider to the deal said the money will be spent not on any big capital projects but on continued infrastructure improvements to aid development of real estate as well as improvements on the ski mountain.
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The News Industry
Lee Enterprises Trims Employee Benefits, Cuts Corporate BonusesAt early morning meetings today at the Missoulian and other Lee Enterprises newspapers across the state and the nation, company officials announced plans to suspend profit-sharing with most employees, cut by half the company's matching contributions to employee retirement accounts and suspend corporate executive bonuses for the year.
In addition, Lee Enterprises announced yesterday it had refinanced its $1 billion debt load and, as a condition of the deal, suspended dividends to shareholders.
Lee newspapers have significantly cut staff across the company in recent months in an effort to cut costs in the face of declining ad revenues and rising production costs.
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About two weeks ago, retired Billings high school teacher Gary Branae, who's running against Republican Jack Sands for Montana's 27th Senate seat, listened with surprise to angry messages from voters appalled by negative campaign calls made against Sands.
"It was an attack piece on my opponent, tying him to criminals, to meth users and dealers. Criminals, they said!" Branae said. "I was furious with that. I questioned whether I even wanted to stay in the race."
It turns out the phone calls, and brochures mailed to the district, were the work of Winning Connections, a direct-action group based in Washington, D.C., and paid for as an independent expenditure by the Montana Democratic Party. The expense hasn't been reported yet. By law, independent expenditures can't be coordinated with candidates. The ads attacked Sands, an attorney, for practicing criminal defense, something Branae says he is strongly -- in favor of.
This year, more so than any time in recent memory, the Montana Democratic Party has prepped itself well and has money to spare. With Governor Brian Schweitzer and veteran U.S. Sen. Max Baucus both shoo-ins for re-election, the party has the resources to go after state legislative races with renewed vigor. Many Democratic candidates say they're getting plenty of help - maybe even too much sometimes, as in the case of Branae.
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washingtonpost.com chat with newwest.net
Q & A: The West in Play
NewWest.Net editor and reporter Robert Struckman chatted live on washingtonpost.com this morning, discussing the nuances of the political changes taking place in the Rocky Mountain West.
The transcript after the jump.
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