Insiders: Perplexed
Long Shot Candidates Win in Montana Primary
By Robert Struckman, 6-04-08
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| Democratic Candidate for U.S. Congress John Driscoll | |
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Political insiders and analysts are scratching their heads in Montana.
“I’m perplexed,” said Dave McAlpin, a state representative and Democratic strategist, in Missoula.
“For me, what I’m taking away from this, is that anything can happen in Montana,” said Brad Anderson, a Republican official in Yellowstone County and a student of statewide politics.
In Tuesday’s primary election, two candidates won statewide primaries in Montana who didn’t seem to stand a chance. One was a prominent Democrat in years past who vowed this time not to raise any money or to campaign, and said he would be delighted if his opponent won. The other has been a perennial fringe candidate who appeared in a comedy bit for a late-night cable show and who seems most famous for his overgrown eyebrows rather than his political stances.
Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress John Driscoll, who doesn’t have a Web site, will run against Rep. Denny Rehberg. He’ll continue to abstain from raising money, although he won’t say no to others who want to raise and spend money on his behalf—if he approves their message.
The Republican pick to run against U.S. Sen. Max Baucus is Bob Kelleher, the former Green Party candidate with the bushy eyebrows.
So how did this happen?
Polls in the primary in the Big Sky state were awash yesterday with tens of thousands of new voters who showed up to hand Barack Obama a primary victory in his race against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. This is the first time Montana has been courted by national presidential candidates.
With its late primary and relatively small number of delegates, Montana votes have never been feted by national figures, much less visited by both candidates and their supporters, most notably former President Bill Clinton, who seemed everywhere in the last few weeks.
More Democrats voted for Obama than previously voted in a Democratic presidential primary in Montana. One question McAlpin posed is how those new voters filled out everything underneath the presidential segment of the ticket.
“I have to think it’s all about name recognition,” McAlpin said. “There was so much focus on the top of the ticket, that folks didn’t see or hear much about the down-ticket candidates.”
Another view, which Driscoll thinks is likely, is that the Obama supporters didn’t feel obliged to follow the Democratic Party line and instead cast their vote for another outsider. After all, Driscoll’s main opponent was Jim Hunt, who was endorsed by the statewide party and who raised almost $190,000, a significant sum in Montana’s low-dollar races.
That may explain the revolution on the Democratic side of the aisle, but it fails to settle the Kelleher question.
The Republican primary actually saw a slight dip in overall ballots cast this election, despite a push by supporters of maverick candidate Ron Paul, who hoped to post a symbolic victory—and with his 20 percent of the vote may a legitimate argument that he did.
But the Ron Paul contingent supported Michael Lange of Billings, one of Kelleher’s opponents. McAlpin noted that Lange barely squeaked out a win in Yellowstone County, where he lives. To win, McAlpin said, a statewide candidate almost has to pummel the opposition on the home turf. Plus, Lange may best be known best in the state for a string of obscenities he threw at the state’s Democratic governor near the end of the last legislative session in a public speech.
“I think it’s as much a function of how few people came out and voted at all,” Anderson said. He blamed the low turnout on McCain’s lack of presence in Montana, where this year the Republicans held an early caucus in February, months before the primary vote.
As for Kelleher’s win, Anderson agreed with McAlpin: Kelleher has been on the ballot before, and he was on national television, even if it was a lampooning by Jon Stewart’s team on the Comedy Channel. All of it gave him just a little push in the polls. Plus, with six candidates, it was an exceptionally crowded field.
“I think people voted for him without knowing who he was. I may be totally wrong about that,” Anderson said. “I think a lot of people are trying to wrap their heads around this.”
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Comments
I guess the old saw is true....we DO get the government deserved. God help Montana.
During the 1970s, he served three successive terms in the Montana House of Representatives. He became majority leader during his second term, and Speaker of the House during his third--the youngest ever in state history. Driscoll played a pivotal leadership role in translating the new constitution into enabling legislation, during a period that many consider the most progressive Montana has ever experienced. Much of what's best in state law, whether it concerns the environment, education, tax policy, or public resources, Driscoll helped bring about.
Driscoll also served on the Public Service Commission for three terms, further distinguishing himself by becoming an expert on power generation and transmission and overall energy policy (he just finished writing a two-part history of electricity in Montana for Montana: The Magazine of Western History). It's very unlikely that the deregulation debacle, and the resultant dismantling of the Montana Power Company, would have happened had Driscoll stayed with the PSC. In any event, he surely would have resisted the collective madness that took possession of legislators, policy makers, and business leaders alike at that time.
More background: Driscoll was a member of the National Guard for 20 years, and is a graduate of the U.S. Army War College, the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, and the U.S. Army Intelligence School. An expert on intelligence and counterterrorism, Driscoll spent his final service years working directly for the Joint Chiefs of Staff; he developed a highly sophisticated education system that integrated all branches of the military (Driscoll was in his office at the Pentagon when it was attacked on the morning of September 11, only narrowly escaping injury). Driscoll retired as a colonel.
Among Driscoll's many other accomplishments, I might add something that many people don't know: He holds three masters degrees--an MBA from the University of Montana, an MIA in Economic Development from Columiba University, and an MPA in Energy and Environment from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.
Driscoll's performance in the primary may have surprised some party leaders and other observers of the political scene, but it didn't surprise those of us who know the man. And in terms of experience, competence, policy positions, and principle, Driscoll would be far superior to Rehberg.
Thank you for your thorough and accurate listing of Driscoll's accomplishments. You're absolutely right. Keep an eye on NewWest.Net for more news on Driscoll and the race. He does hark back to Montana's recent and progressive past.
Thanks again,
Bob
I would have liked to have seen Bob Keenan's name on the ballot this year. Mike Lange mounting a write-in campaign is ridiculous. It won't serve the party a bit.