Posted: October 30, 2012 at 7:39 am
Koopman Crackdown
I
n a Montana GOP “e-brief” email to party faithful, Republican State Party Chair Will Deschamps came out swinging against Republican legislators who endorsed a democrat over Bozeman crackpot PSC candidate Roger Koopman. Earlier this month, Koopman had threatened party leaders that if leadership did not crack down on the Republicans who endorsed his opponent “Republican blood will flow in the streets.”
Koopman was referring to an ad in the Bozeman Chronicle quoting a GOP legislator. Rep. Jesse O’Hara said Koopman was “one of the most ineffective and divisive people I have ever been around…In one of our committee meetings we had to restrain him from beating up one of the people testifying.” Several other prominent Republican legislators have also endorsed democrat John Vincent for PSC.
Chairman Deschamps says he wants to “discourage that behavior in strong terms.” He ”endorses Koopman wholeheartedly” and writes that “[w]ithout exception, every single Republican nominee in Montana is a better choice for the good of our state than any Democrat nominee.”
Presumably he is including the Nazi candidate on the GOP ticket from Butte and the Republican congressional candidate with KKK ties. Deschamps ends the email with a statement he claims is the “11th commandment” of Ronald Reagan, a man the Montana GOP supposedly reveres: ”thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.”
As the Bozeman Chronicle pointed out when GOP Director Bowen Greenwood made the same gaffe, it was actually California Republican Party chairman Gaylord Parkinson who said that.
Deschamps’ entire email can be read below:
As Chair of the Montana State Republican Party and a previous legislative candidate, I have been involved in a lot of elections. They have ups and downs, they have times when I have either rejoiced or regretted. Fortunately, it’s been more rejoicing than regretting.
When you’ve been through as much as I have, though, you develop a long-term perspective about the inter-personal conflicts that happen in politics. They seem small, compared to the ideals that we’re working for. The ideas last longer than the personality conflicts ever could.
Lately, there has been some controversy about a few Republicans supporting a Democrat candidate in the election for Public Service Commission. I want to discourage that kind of behavior in strong terms.
There is a distinction between primary elections and general elections. Having a robust and vigorous debate in our primaries only strengthens our party and that is the proper forum for such discourse. But once the primary is over and our voters have nominated our candidates, we need to all rally behind them to achieve success in November.
Let me be perfectly clear: Any Republican who is publicly endorsing a Democrat is doing something that I consider to be wrong. Without exception, every single Republican nominee in Montana is a better choice for the good of our state than any Democrat nominee.
Roger Koopman is our Republican candidate. Speaking as the Chairman of the party, I endorse him wholeheartedly. If the members of the party want a chair who would ever consider any vote for a Democrat, well, they will have the chance to elect one next June. For now, you have me. And I say, vote Republican. Period.I understand that, in the rough and tumble of elections, some of us get angry at others. Heck, I’ve struggled with that too. But the good of our state is more important than any one interpersonal squabble.
Let’s not forget that, in working to end Democrat policies of the past four years, we are working for the good of our country. When one of us has trouble getting along with another, that isn’t the main issue. If nothing else, the squabble will end when we die. But the country will go on long past that. And electing the Republican candidate is what we do to try and do right by our country and state.
So I say to all Republicans, if we disagree with each other, let’s ratchet back the rhetoric. If the infighting works to keep taxes high and regulations higher, is it really worth it?
Ronald Reagan made a famous joke: The 11th commandment is, “thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.” Republicans ought to live by that.
We are in the right, let’s have faith in our candidates. We can move forward as one single party with many ideas, many diverse concerns, but always with the thought that we will do what is best for the Montana citizens, now and into the future.
Sincerely,
Will Deschamps
Chairman
Montana Republican Party
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###Paid for By the Montana Republican Party, Debra Brown, Treasurer. PO Box 935, Helena, MT 59624. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee
Deschamps says, “Without exception, every single Republican nominee in Montana is a better choice for the good of our state than any Democrat nominee.” Presumably, that would include the nice young man who was accused of sexual assault. http://missoulian.com/news/local/article_ba65817a-0abe-11e2-a337-0019bb2963f4.html
Yes, racists and accused rapists appear to be no or Len as long as they are republicans!!
Innocent until proven guilty, thanks.
I see you have no objections to stolen documents mysteriously becoming public record when it serves the cause, eh.
And Deschamps is right. Even the worst GOP crank is orders of magnitude better than any Demolitionist.
These records are public documents. That’s the law. If republicans have a problem with that perhaps they should introduce secrecy legislation next session.
Ben, which law, Montana, Colorado, federal? BTW, Mary Baker, Commissioner of Political Practices Program Supervisor said her office is no longer releasing the documents to the public.
Funny that. I’ll bet the Attorney General’s office could get a good gander at them. I do wonder why such big money was thrown at Tim Fox …
That’s ridiculous. These documents must be released to the public. They are public documents under Montana law and must be provided to anyone who asks. A state employee does not have the right to censor the record.
Skinner, your cluelessness to ironic hypocrisy is exceptional. Compare and contrast these 2 statements and see if you can find your error:
1:
2:
Parse that out, and do take your time.
Ok first a little bit of disclosure, I do not and I did not vote a straight party ticket this year or do I any year, and I do not know how a person can do so in good consiouns. Will Deschamps is a hypocrite for this letter, cause in 08 when Roger Koopman and his ilk were attacking lifelong Republicans people that are clearly conservative, he said and did NOTHING. This Koopman guy would be bad for the state of Montana if he got on the PSC, cause he would not be willing or able to work with others and represent all the people of his district to get things done. Now I do lean towards the Democratic party real hard, but Ive accepted that I live in a right of center county, in a right of center state, in a right of center country. I would call myself a centrist, Im the last guy you will ever find at a Greenpeace save the wales rally, yet Im also the last guy you will ever find at the Sunday night meeting of the John Birch society. So Im forced to accept some Republicans by default, and some of them do dam good jobs in their public service, but this guy there is no way he can be a public servant. Vote Vincent cause atleast he cares about the public.
Most politicians don’t really care about the people. Those politicians care about the special interest, which are the groups and people who got them elected. Deschamps was working hard to get rid of the Ron Paul folks in the Republican party. Now in some of these close races Deschamps wants these people to vote Republican. The Republicans are dugging their own graves this year.
Sadly Dave, I think the Republicants are being savvy. They know the Paulites will vote for them. (I sincerely hope I’m wrong.)
And now it comes out. These documents contained evidence of illegal coordination between ATP and the campaigns:
As you can see from this breaking story.
Just an observation – Koopman must be a real winner if Jesse O’Hara is calling him out. O’Hara can’t stay awake in those early morning committee hearings.
You may want to consider putting down the crack pipe for a moment. You’re saying a guy who dozed in a meeting is comparable to a guy who had to be restrained from beating down a witness (Koopdog). Please.
I wonder if Deschamps will send out an equally “firm” email the next time Koopman sends out another report.
Yeah where was deschamps when Koopman was sending out mailers against his fellow legislators claiming they supported sex offenders?? This guy needs to go.