Tagged: Drew Turiano

Posted: May 9, 2012 at 7:04 am

The Crackpot Pledge

The Flathead Memo is reporting on a crackpot TEA Party end-of-the world pledge that has actually been signed by four candidates running for statewide office of the Republican ticket.

Signers include Derek Skees, Republican for State Auditor who proudly wore a Confederate flag emblazoned on his jacket during the Whitefish Memorial Day parade. Skees is running against the current office holder Monica Lindeen (D), who is seeking a second term. Drew Turiano, Republican for Secretary of State also signed. Turiano is the guy who sent out a mailer advocating that the U.S. turn away all immigrants, whether they had legal documents or no. Turiano is running against current Secretary of State Linda McCulloch (D).

The crackpots apparently even got a Republican Gubernatorial candidate and his running mate in the Montana legislature to sign.

Among other things, the Republicans pledged to “defend state sovereignty” and to ”oppose, or modify to eliminate, or negate, every Federal law, regulation, or bureaucracy.” Presumably this means every Federal law that, as hopeful state elected officials, they oppose and claim was wrongfully enacted. Probably the Civil Rights Act is on the list.

Anyway, James Conner at the Flathead Memo has the full story and explains what’s in the pledge. It’s today’s must read political blog post.

Posted: December 31, 2011 at 9:16 am

Worst Political Christmas Card of the Season

There are still a few hours to go until we reach the 2012 horizon, so there is still plenty of time for some GOP candidate antics. They would have to register high on the wackjob scale, however, to top this.

Suffice it to say, it’s been a pretty embarrassing year for Neil Livingstone and Ryan Zinke. However, they have managed to squeeze this last humiliation in before the New Year.

This is certainly the weirdest holiday card I’ve ever seen from…well…anyone. What says “Merry Christmas” less than Livingstone and Zinke in a sleigh with Zinke brandishing a scope sighted M-16, a dead wolf on the front of the sleigh, drone wings, hidden pistols, and an unintentional homage to Obama–a crossed out face of Osama bin Laden. And don’t forget the bag of extractive-industry-only jobs and the PhD certificates.

This is one oddball message to wrap up into a Christmas card and send to the electorate. Presumably, the “strategy” behind this is to show that these guys ARE TOO! nutty enough to compete with Drew Turiano and Chuck Baldwin. A larger version can be seen here.

Posted: December 13, 2011 at 12:15 pm

No Date Yet for Rick Hill

I’m hearing that GOP front runner Rick Hill is striking out–left, right and center– in his search for a running-mate.

Word is that several notables have turned him down, perhaps worried about his baggage (meaning, his winkie getting dipped and sipped, at the sip and dip).

It’s unusual to see a guy leading so strongly in fundraising and yet having trouble finding a date to the dance.

Then again, its not like he’s got any urgency in the matter. The eight dwarfs– meaning Essmann, Miller, Fanning, Livingstone, Turiano, Lynch, Stapleton, and whoever the eighth guy is-are not presenting much of a threat.

But if you ever have the opportunity to hang out in GOP circles (incognito, in my case) you will invariably hear a refrain that goes something like this: “Hill is not the right guy,” says the local GOP person, with his nose a little bit crinkled and a slight squint to his eyes. You hear it over and over again.

Which is all good news for Steve Bullock.

Posted: December 5, 2011 at 7:29 am

GOP Gubernatorial Race Update: Hill Still the Big Favorite

Rick Hill is still leading strongly in the nine-way GOP race for governor, according to a Public Policy Polling survey conducted this past week.

Hill polls highest among those who describe themselves as liberal or somewhat liberal, but that goes down to 31% with very conservative voters. Hill’s lead is unsurprising, given that no other candidate has any name ID– nor have they shown an interest in going after the front runner, nor even in trying to take some risks and attract attention to themselves. The percentage of voters who answered they’d like “someone else or undecided” is similar to or greater than the number supporting Hill among the full range of GOP voters polled. This is further indication that most people haven’t heard of any of these guys yet and that being a state legislator means jack in terms of name recognition.

The one wild card was Neil Livingstone, who is now known mainly as having been Muammar Qaddafi’s lobbyist. For a few million bucks worth of TV ads, Livingstone could have make up the deficit against Hill and probably surpassed him. But word on the street is that he is closing up shop and getting out of the race, his campaign having all but derailed. Perhaps he doesn’t have the cash, or else why would he have tried prostituting himself to Qaddafi for the big payday, in the middle of a governor’s race?

The rest of the field is a bunch of yahoos. Stapleton has raised a decent clip of cash but will not have nearly enough to close the gap. Essmann has spent all his money on munchies for campaign events; Ken Miller has a comb-over. The full results of the poll can be seen here.

Looking beyond the primary to the general contest, the Washington, D.C. based Politico has, for the third month in a row, declared Attorney General Steve Bullock as the “winner” of the moment– giving him that distinction every month since he joined the race. The the political news source has ranked the Montana gubernatorial contest as one of the top races in the nation.

Posted: November 3, 2011 at 7:31 am

Farther, Faster, Racistier

How many times have you heard Republicans hold up their hands and say “Hey, we have no problem with minorities, we are against illegal immigrants.”

This may be true for some conservatives, but others use it to mask their true anti-immigrant – legal or not – views. That has become even clearer now the TEA Party arrived on the scene–its members proudly wearing the confederate flag in public ceremonies and urging white flighters to make Montana home. This kind of thing has inspired conservatives to take off their masks and show their true faces. It ain’t a pretty site.

Meet Drew Turiano, “TEA Party Conservative Republican” candidate for Governor in the Montana Republican Primary.

Turiano apparently believes that the ideas he espouses need no longer be confined to white supremacy sites. He sent out a mass mailer this week saying (among other crazy things) that his problem is no longer only with the undocumented and the “many murderers, rapists, and thieves in that group.” Turiano urges that the target must be shifted to legal immigrants.

I can hear the GOP defending their man Turiano now, “You can’t call him a racist, he’s not saying that non-white people are bad.” No, Drew Turiano is only saying that they caused “severe damage” to our “culture, customs, neighborhoods, crime rate, English language, schools, health care system and the general economic health of America” is all.

Like Nazi candidate Shawn Stuart, Turiano proudly boasts the endorsement of the Montana Right to Life.

He’s got so many wacky positions we’ve only just tapped the surface here, so read the rest of his screed now. He wants the message spread about him “AS FAST AS YOU CAN.”