Schweitzer: Don’t Read Too Much Into GOP Legislative Victories

By Robert Struckman, 11-06-08

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.

Still, some Montana Democrats bemoaned the fact that Montana was one of the only states in the country where Democrats lost a measure of legislative control, and fresh in many minds is the deadlocked session two yeas ago when the parties mainly produced gridlock and recriminations.

To be sure, Republicans came out looking worse last session, some GOP insiders said, especially after Rep. Mike Lange of Billings lost his cool in a speech and cussed a blue streak, mostly about Schweitzer.

Each election year, 25 of Montana’s Senate seats go up for re-election. This year, 12 Democrat-controlled seats were open because of term-limits, compared to only six Republican seats.

That’s why Schweitzer painted the results this way: “Either we came out the same, or we broke even, when the numbers were against us.”

He’s right, but Democrats thought they had overcome those odds by out-organizing and out-spending Republicans across the state.

So why didn’t more Democrats win? It’s not because the state disagrees with Democratic policies, he said. Each race is particular to itself, and wins have more to do with shoe-leather and personalities than political theories.

“The bottom line is that good candidates spend time on races. It’s who’s got the shoe leather and knocks on doors,” he said.

As for recruitment, he said, it’s more serendipity than orchestrated. “In many of these cases, it’s self-identified. Someone steps up. Yeah, good. We’ve got a candidate,” he said.

Then the candidate has to spend time on the doors. “I tell you, the one that gave them a little love wins the election,” Schweitzer said.

As for the tenor of the upcoming Legislature, Schweitzer declined to guess whether the two parties will reach across the aisle to get things done—or spar as they have in recent years.

“What I’ll do is what governors do,” Schweitzer said, meaning he’ll give the legislators his proposals.

“The Constitution says they have 90 days to make changes and suggestions and send it back to me,” he said. “There’s no percentage in the executive branch looking over their shoulder.”

Note: An early version of this story included a typographical error. Democrats last controlled all five of Montana’s Land Board seats in 1948.