Supreme Court Fundraising

Steve Bullock’s victory in the Western Traditions Partnership v. Montana case is an important reminder of how important the Supreme Court races are in Montana.  The latest campaign finance reports for Supreme Court show Elizabeth Best of Great Falls has raised an impressive $62,500 last quarter, with $59,000 cash on hand. Meanwhile, Ed Sheehy Jr of Missoula has raised $5,000 and has $6,500 in the bank.

Oddly Silent

I posted last week about the Big Win for Bullock in Clean Elections Case – and the mainstream media and blogosphere has been all over it.  When it comes to the resistance to Citizens United, Montana is now the front line of the battle and people are paying attention.

There have been big stories in the national papers: Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal.  Denver radio host and former Montanan David Sirota had our Attorney General on his show.  The local editorial boards of the Great Falls Tribune, Helena Independent Record, Havre Daily News and Billings Gazette have all weighed in, giving Bullock some love.  Even the editor of the Daily Inter Lake – who is to the right of the John Birch Society – had good things to say.

With the conservative groups that brought the lawsuit appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court, the case going to be front and center this election year.

Which brings me to the question: why just crickets from the GOP candidates?  Not one of them (how many are there now?) will say one way or the other how they feel about the biggest decision to come out of the Montana Supreme Court in a really long time.

The likely reason is they’re caught between a rock and a hard place.  Regular Montanans – and Americans – want less corruption in their politics. But the special interests and the lobbyists don’t see it that way, and the candidates seem all too eager to pander for their donations.

It will be interesting to see what Rick Hill, Jeff Essmann, Corey Stapleton, Ken Miller, Neil Livingstone or any of the rest of these crazies say about where they stand.