Tagged: 2012

Posted: May 21, 2012 at 7:44 am

Shadow Groups Back at Work in GOP Primaries

The shadow group American Traditions Partnership is back working in Republican legislative races in Montana. American Traditions Partnership (ATP) is the group that sued to deregulate elections and turn back MT’s 100 year old ban on corporate funding of elections.

ATP, which doesn’t disclose its donors, sent out a mailer supporting Dee Brown in the Republican primary for the Whitefish/Columbian Falls State Senate Seat, SD 2. Previously they favored TEA Party poster boy Rep. Derek Skees in the HD4 general.

HB 198 was a Republican bill passed by a Republican controlled Legislature. This demagoguing flier was mailed with heavy saturation in Whitefish and Columbia Falls. Here’s the mailer:

The Center for Responsive Politics estimated that Republican secret money groups outspent Democrats across the U.S. last election cycle by a 7-1 margin. Here in Montana, ATP and other Republican-leaning groups spent an estimated $2-3 million attacking Democratic candidates and supporting TEA Party Republicans–but you can’t find the exact amount or who paid for it. This is just one more reason why the Citizens United decision is so bad. The Supreme Court opined that voters could easily go to the internet to find out who paid for the campaign ads. But GOP political operatives simply set up tax-exempt non-profit front groups like ATP to avoid having to disclose their donors. The front groups claimed that they were educating the public on issues rather than campaigning for candidates. Therefore, they argued, the disclosure wasn’t required.

Christ Matthews told Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer on Hardball recently that fewer than 50 wealthy individuals or corporations are spending the bulk of the money to influence elections this cycle. Schweitzer was on the program to talk about his support for a ballot initiative in Montana to overturn Citizens United.

ATP is the lead plaintiff in the legal challenge to Montana’s ban on corporate spending for candidates. The group touts their organization’s secrecy as a benefit of giving them money and have been under fire for corruption in Montana and other states. Montana TEA Party legislator Art Wittich (R-TEA Bozeman) is said to be the new local figurehead for the entity.

Posted: December 19, 2010 at 9:21 am

The Rehberg Puzzle

Denny Rehberg’s vote against the tax cut package could be explained by his expected bid for higher office, either Governor or Senator–he’s keeping his options open. As The Hill reports,

A slew of House Republicans thought to be contenders for higher office in 2012 voted against the tax package on Thursday.

Rehberg was one of them, and Rehberg’s vote against the recent spending package can be explained by these ambitions, because votes against the spending measure will likely be a positive with Tea Party activists and could help in a GOP primary against Daines or Hill.

But the question isn’t which office he’ll run for, what’s really puzzling is why some far-left liberals would rather fight the friends who disappoint them on occasion than focus on the enemies who want to destroy them. The right doesn’t do this. They just want to win. If actions are any indicator, some liberals just want to whine.

Posted: December 3, 2010 at 7:28 am

Helena Establishment Behind Hill; Top Operative Scrubbing Wikipedia Page

Though the election is two years away, already Montana gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill seems to have at least one major Republican insider helping him out: Chuck Denowh, former GOP director and now the state’s top Republican operative.

Unless it is an impostor (which we know can sometimes happen on the web), a person by the handle of “Cdenowh” has lately been editing, and usually scrubbing, Hill’s Wikipedia page.

Most recently, “Cdenowh”erased unflattering factual information and replaced it with the canned talking points designed to gloss over some of Hill’s political vulnerabilities, such as a reference to Hill’s infamous assertion that a woman without children is unfit to hold office because she would have no knowledge of family values.

If a curious Montana voter had looked for information about Hill on wikipedia last week, she would have found a page that read:(screenshot)

Hill attempted a campaign against Superintendent of Public Instruction (an elected position in Montana, unlike most other states) Nancy Keenan in 2000 by claiming that she was unfit for office because she was childless and unmarried, only to learn that she’d had a hysterectomy in 1983 after a battle with cancer. His approval ratings tanked, and so Hill bowed out of the race citing “health problems.”

Now, it reads:(Screenshot)

Hill was elected to Congress in 1996, defeating [[Bill Yellowtail]], and represented [[Montana's At-large congressional district]] from January 3, 1997 until January 3, 2001. Hill retired from Congress in 2000 due to deteriorating eyesight, which has since been recovered.

Posted: July 22, 2010 at 7:36 am

Failed abortion banners stretch to find silver lining, excuses

Annie Bukacek and Montana’s most extreme anti-choicers are trying to find the silver lining in their second signature-gathering-based failure (and umpteenth legislative referenda-based failure in 20-years) to get a total abortion ban on Montana’s ballot.

“These are all volunteer signatures, which is an amazing feat in and of itself.”

Given the tea party, mega churches, and the general propensity of Montanans to be willing to put questions to a vote of the people, I don’t think it took that many volunteers. Nor do I think that it is “an amazing feat” that you convinced some people to sign your petition voluntarily. The fact that these right-wingers think so, however, certainly doesn’t say much about what they were trying to get on the ballot.

Perhaps some will say that I misconstrue the above quotation–that this individual is trying to say that the signatures were collected by volunteers; however, I don’t think that’s the case because the press release makes the point elsewhere, and, it is their press release.

Victory for Montanans (Jay wrote about it earlier and I touched on it briefly below), the integrity of the MT Constitution, and the right to privacy can be found in the failure of CI-102 to qualify for the ballot in November, so the rest of us will also be celebrating.

This is not the first time Bukacek has faced failure, so it’s good to see she’s keeping a positive attitude about it all:

She has written a book about weight loss, and her diabetes quality assurance efforts launched a program that is being used nation-wide. Because of her quality assurance work, she was chosen by the American Board of Internal Medicine as one of six physician consultants regarding its Diabetes Practice Improvement Model. Asked to leave a physician group practice because she refused to stop praying with patients, she started her own clinic that is flourishing.

Well, it was flourishing until she came under investigation for Medicaid fraud. Now, the clinic website, Hosanna Health Care, appears to be down too.

They group is not beyond looking for excuses either. In the same press release, Cal Zastrow, co-founder the national group that is pushing this nonsense on states, seems to be postulating that perhaps one reason for CI-102′s failure to qualify is that one of the movement’s key players was too busy elsewhere to make it happen here in Montana:

“Jesus Christ is building a movement for personhood rights of babies across the country,” explained Cal Zastrow, co-founder of Personhood USA. “He will continue to build in Montana, and they will stand ready.”

Sounds like that guy is pretty busy, plus he’s got the Derek Skees legislative race up in the Flathead and Michael Steele to worry about.

Posted: July 20, 2010 at 12:44 pm

One of these things is not like the other…

Corey Stapleton is Running for Governor??? A visit to Corey Stapleton’s Wikipedia page this morning revealed he has fixed his spelling mistake. Good job Corey and thanks for reading the Montana Cowgirl Blog.

I also noticed some other differences between your official campaign website and your Wikipedia page which you may want to address. On your official website, you write:

Corey and his wife Terry, are both fourth generation Montanan’s who grew up in Great Falls.

Yet your Wikipedia page says:

Corey was born in Seattle, Washington. He was adopted as an infant and lived in Idaho Falls, Idaho until age 2, moved to Great Falls, Montana in 1969.

Can you clarify?

Also, your Wikipedia page has this information, which your official campaign site makes no mention of:

As a child Corey was a leader of many things good or bad. Small and quick, he was a standout athlete, good musician, and gifted student but also had to overcome childhood addictions and juvenile delinquency.

Please explain.