Tagged: Bitterrooter

Posted: April 5, 2012 at 6:16 am

Explanation of Tea Party Plot in Ravalli County

As I recently mentioned, there is a nasty plot afoot in Ravalli county, hatched by the local Tea Party.  It’s dirty, below-the-belt, highly dishonest stuff.  Embarrassed at the fact that they have become a national joke, the Montana Tea Party has resorted to an attempt to invade and infect the Democratic Party, Trojan Horse style, and take it over.  Let’s take a closer look at exactly what’s happening.

When you vote in a primary in Montana, there is a place on your ballot to  vote for “precinct committee captain.” This is an unusual item to be found on a ballot for a state election because a precinct captain is a Party post, not a government office. Yet Democratic and Republican ballots both provide this opportunity to vote for a candidate for this political position.  Sometimes there will be a name, or several names, from which to choose.  Other years, the slot will be blank and the voter must either write in a name, or else not cast a vote.  It is often left blank, because most people don’t even know what the heck it is.

And what is a precinct committee captain? There is one elected (on primary day) from each voting precinct in every county, and these persons collectively form what is called the “central committee” for the county.  A central committee is simply the governing board of the county party.

But this year, a bunch of Tea Partiers (in several precincts in Ravalli county) filed paperwork to run for Democratic precinct Committeeperson.  And unless the Ravalli democrats undertake a campaign to inform voters not to vote for these candidates, these idiots will be elected to the county committee and will then exert control of the local Democratic party. The TEA Party candidates are:   Lyle E. Goracke, Jan Wisniewski, Donna Gibney, Pamela Nearpass, Catherine Lieberth, Wayne K. Dunkin and David J. Erickson.

Posted: December 21, 2011 at 7:26 pm

“Knee-Walking Drunk” Endorses Open Container Guy

Bitterroot state senator Jim Shockley’s citation earlier this year for drinking canned red beer while driving inspired the Republican to step down from his position. (He chaired the legislative committee drafting tougher DUI laws.)  But, it didn’t stop him from accepting the endorsement of former Senator Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), whose infamous “I’m ready to go get knee-walking drunk!” foot-in-mouth syndrome led to his Senate demise.

Shockley announced the endorsement on his campaign website.

Perhaps this will become a kind of theme,  a stream of endorsements by drinking advocates.   Maybe those involved in the infamous and tragic Shane Hedges DUI accident and death of the House Majority Leader (in which Judy Martz barely escaped a prosecution for evidence tampering) will chime in. Rs have kept a steady pace since then so there are lots of endorsement opportunities for the campaign.

A review:

Of course, there is Alan Hale, Shockley’s colleague in the state house who is campaigning in favor of drinking and driving.

Brad Johnson, the former Secretary of State, got pulled over for a DUI and went subsequently to treatment, though it didn’t seem to faze him: from a rehab center, he actively continued campaigning in his PSC race and is now running again for Secretary of State, a position voters ousted him from in 2008.

Greg Barkus got a few DUIs on the road over the last decade; Scott Boggio, a GOP legislator from Red Lodge, ran up on a curb while driving around with another repub, Elsie Arntzen, and got pulled over, and turned out to be massively drunk, though of course Arntzen, a DUI Task Force member, expressed the usual right-wing-passenger-shock, and said she “had no idea” driver Boggio was impaired.

And of course then Barkus went for the hat-trick, a third DUI, this time in style by running a boat up into the rocky shore of Flathead Lake, causing injuries all around, with passenger Rehberg, drunk himself, taking a page out of Arntzen’s script and saying he was shocked to hear that the driver was impaired.

Then there was recently Brad Molnar, who mowed his car into that of some hapless girl just last year, and fled the scene and was placed under a restraining order from any contact with the victim.

Drinking, Driving, Boating, Hit and Runs. What is most important is that Republicans will often fight publicly for stiffer sentencing for criminals, and against the evil smoking of marijuana, and in favor of “values”.