Tagged: Franke Wilmer

Posted: October 12, 2012 at 5:19 pm

Local Legislative Races on National Radar

Three Montana legislative races are garnering national attention. National Democrats announced today that legislative contests in Great Falls, Bozeman, and Lake County are among the sixty races that are key battlegrounds for state legislatures across the United States.

The spotlight is on these key races:

Franke Wilmer v. Tom Burnett in Bozeman

Rep. Franke Wilmer served as House Speaker pro tempore and finishing second in this year’s Democratic primary for Congress.

Wilmer’s opponent is Rep. Tom Burnett, a TEA Party crackpot running on a platform of cutting food for hungry kids in need. His ridiculous “report,”Hunger in America: The Myth, “calls for an end to food assistance programs and offers such advice to needy parents as ‘No whining,’ ‘Gather wild berries,’ and in a moment of unintended irony, ‘Expect occasional hunger.’”

Nancy Lindsey v. Janna Taylor in Lake County

Democrat Nancy Lindsey, who co-founded a successful software company, will likely make job creation a top issue in this campaign. Taylor, is a TEA Party Republican who claims to oppose government spending.

She’s also the number one recipient of government farm subsidy cash in the Montana Legislature.

Tom Jacobson v. Cleve Loney in Great Falls

Democrat Tom Jacobson was the Executive Director of Rural Dynamics for ten years. The organization promotes the “economic security of Montana’s working class.”

Jacobson is running against TEA Party loon Cleve Loney. Cleve is quite fond of costumes, as you can see from these pictures. Loney’s platform seems to involve something about the Constitution, though it’s not clear what.

“That’s what we have to do – we have to keep it in check to where they keep the Constitution where it belongs. They are trying to shred it and we’re going to stop that because this country is founded on the Constitution and our founding fathers have a reason for putting it the way they did – limited government.”

You can read the full 2012 Essential Races list here.

Posted: March 19, 2012 at 10:17 pm

Staggering Statistic Confirms GOP Anti-Woman Bias

Out of 40 Republican candidates running for state-wide office in Montana, only two are women. (Patty Lovaas and Sandy Welch)

For the Democrats, there are eight women out of 22 total candidates. (Monica Lindeen, Pam Bucy, Linda McCulloch, Kim Gillan, Denise Juneau, Heather Margolis, Franke Wilmer, Diane Smith)

Notably, all seven GOP gubernatorial candidates are male, and have all chosen male running mates.

Republicans aren’t very good with math, so I’ll spell it out for them: The GOP clearly either does not believe that females belong in politics, or the Party simply repels women.

Posted: March 10, 2012 at 8:19 am

Mansfield Metcalf Preview

It’s the big night of the year for Democrats tonight, as the Party will be holding its annual soiree, the Mansfield Metcalf dinner. It will be held at the Lewis and Clark County Fairgrounds. This is the night where the rank and file may buy a ticket for $50 bucks for the privilege of drinking and dining and mingling with Democratic politicians, and can listen to them give speeches.

In past years the dinner has been well attended and raised good money for the Democratic Party. So pull out your checkbook and come down to the fairgrounds. This year’s featured guest is CNN analyst Paul Begala, also known as the Montana Cowgirl of Washington DC.

M&M, as Democrats like to call the affair, has become quite a party in recent years, especially when Hillary and Barack showed up in 2008 and debated each other in dueling speeches. Recent speakers have also included Tammy Duckworth, the VA chief; Jim Messina of the White House; and regional politicians like Ken Salazar and Mark Udall. Sometimes the speeches are interesting, and some have been real snoozers.

On one occasion there was even a wonderfully awkward situation, when the guest speaker was Jim Webb, a U.S. Senator from Virginia. Webb’s speech contained numerous references to Andrew Jackson, with Webb referring several times to Jackson as his hero. When Schweitzer then took the stage, he explained to Webb that Jackson might be a hero in Virginia, but not in Montana, because he slaughtered innocent native Americans. There was an audible gasp from the crowd, and Webb was visibly humiliated.

The usual mix of funny, inspiring, exciting, boring, predictable and weird political speeches will no doubt be served up, some appetizers from Denise Juneau, Linda McCulloch and Monica Lindeen, Carol Williams and Jon Sesso, followed by the main course from Schweitzer, Baucus and Tester and Bullock. Aspiring members of Congress Franke Wilmer, Kim Gillan, Dianne Smith, Bob Stutz and Dave Strohmeier will also probably get a few minutes of stage time.

Also creating some buzz tomorrow night will be the newest addition to the Democratic Party’s roster, General John Walsh, who was picked as a running mate yesterday by Steve Bullock, a pick that so angered and stupefied the Republican Party that they never bothered putting out a statement about Bullock’s choice. That says it all.

So what’s the theme going to be this year? Last year the crowd was fired up because Schweitzer had just vetoed, with his branding iron, a pile of lunatic legislation put forward by Tea Partiers. And the Democrats at the time were successfully standing in the way of the GOP’s efforts to revert the state to the Judy Martz era of deficits and incompetence. So the dinner was up beat and a much-needed catharsis after a depressing election in which the GOP took over the legislature by historic margins.

Speaking of which, there will be local candidates at the dinner as well, such as those running for the state legislature. Some of these folks are lucky to be running against Tea Party lunatics, and so will likely be in the legislature next year. Most of the GOP wingnuts who won legislative seats in 2010 did so only by the slimmest of margins–a dozen votes in some cases–and so we should expect not to see them back in Helena because 2010 was an anomalously large GOP turnout year.

And as always, a justifiable pride will be circulating in the ballroom on Saturday, from the fact that Montana Democrats control all six state-wide political offices. That’s a whole Happy Meal, whereas the Republicans are down to their last greasy french fry, Dennis Rehberg.

Posted: February 17, 2012 at 7:00 am

Female Elephants Need Not Apply

In the Republican primary for governor, six male candidates have now chosen six male running mates. It is a male-only field.

And it gets worse: Of the twenty or so Republicans who have announced a run for statewide office, only one is a woman.

At a minimum, you’d think at least one of the idiots running for governor would sense some political value in choosing a woman. Yet none did. Perhaps this is why the GOP has been relegated to a fringe sect in Montana. Perhaps this is why an ignoramus like Dennis Rehberg is now the Republicans’ lone statewide office holder, literally the last man standing.

Fortunately, Democrats give no quarter to such sexism.

For starters, Pam Bucy, an accomplished lawyer and deputy attorney general, is poised to become our next Attorney General. She would become Montana’s first female Attorney General and one of only six in America, and only the second woman in Montana’s 122 year history to occupy a top elected office in Montana (the others are Jeanette Rankin and Judy Martz).

And don’t forget Monica Lindeen, Denise Juneau and Linda McCulloch, who are sitting in the three other executive positions right now, as well as Carol Williams who was Senate President in 2009 and now Senate Majority leader. She is the only woman ever to hold the top legislative post in either house.

And the Democratic nominee for Congress will also be a female, either Kim Gillan, Franke Wilmer or Diane Smith. In the past, our nominees for Congress have included Tracy Velasquez, Lindeen, and Nancy Keenan for Congress, and Dorothy Bradley ran for Governor. On the Public Service Commission, we have Gail Gutsche and may also soon have Lynda Moss.

The only females of the species playing a role in the GOP gubernatorial primary are the numerous ex-wives and mistresses of a few of the candidates. I guess that’s better than nothing.

Posted: January 31, 2012 at 5:01 pm

Congressional Candidates Reveal Their Finances

The federal candidates released their fundraising numbers today.

The House Race:

Kim Gillan (Billings) retains the lead over Diane Smith (Whitefish) and Franke Wilmer (Bozeman), with more cash in the bank. (cash balances: Gillan $100K, Smith $75K, Wilmer $54K). Smith, however, had a big quarter and nearly doubled what Wilmer and Smith each brought in, Smith raising $100K to Wilmer’s $55K and Gillan’s $52K.

The bad news is that on the GOP side, Steve Daines raised $173K and has $631K clams in the bank.

The Senate Race:

Tester continues to kick the shit out of Rehberg in fundraising, probably because Tester is capable of speaking in full, grammatical sentences while speaking to prospective donors on the telephone.

As the Missoulian reports:

Rehberg raised $656,000 during the last quarter of the year, compared to Tester’s $1.2 million. Rehberg also had a little more than half of the Democrat’s $3.8 million cash on hand.

To recap, in the State races reported last month the snapshot were: Bullock handily beating Rick Hill (governor); Bucy edging out Laslovich (attorney general) by a hair for the quarter, Laslovich raising slightly more overall but Bucy having more cash on hand; and Lindeen, Juneau and McCulloch beating their likely GOP opponents.

Posted: December 2, 2011 at 12:34 pm

Republican Calls for Less Food for Montanans in Need

Happy Holidays from TEA Party Republican State Representative Tom Burnett, of Bozeman.

To celebrate the spirit of the season, Burnett has penned a bizarre 53-page treatise on his beliefs that we should cut food for needy families. In “Hunger in America: The Myth,” which has been making the email rounds this week, Burnett writes that hunger doesn’t exist because he hasn’t seen it:

No advocates parade a line of emaciated children at any school or playground. They just can’t be found.

But that’s not the only reason Representative Burnett has come to the conclusion that no one is really going hungry. He also bases his case on…wait for it…pictures of fat people he found on the internet (see right), which he includes in his article as “evidence.”

Burnett has apparently decided to decided to ignore the studies showing the increased risk of obesity among the nation’s poor, who must rely on cheap starchy and higher fat foods to feed their families. A box of mac and cheese will last on the shelf a lot longer than a cucumber.
In addition to claiming that hunger doesn’t exist. He also sanely tells us that not being hungry “kills,”

Hunger is a normal part of a healthy person’s day. One should expect to be hungry six hours per day, the two hours preceding each meal. Satiety kills.

He proposes to create a massive federal food police bureaucracy to crack down on the poor to stop them from buying items that Burnett feels they don’t deserve. Those in need, says Burnett are characterized by “Indolence. Shirking responsibility. Indulgence. Enabled laziness.”

They don’t budget or plan. Lack of foresight is common in this population. They don’t restrain their impulses, one of the definitions of management problems. They don’t discipline themselves to stay in school, to turn in their homework, to get out of bed on time, to study when they’d rather watch movies.

There have been attempts by Republicans in Congress and the Montana Legislature to slash the budget for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but this just might be the oddest attempt to make the case.

Meanwhile, Congressional candidate and State Representative Franke Wilmer is working to shed light on the issue and those Americans suffering the most in these harsh economic times. Wilmer has been living off of $31.50 worth of food ($4.50 per day), the average weekly benefit the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program program provides to help hungry people in need to buy food.

Don’t expect this kind of compassion from Tom Burnett, who has only stern advice to hungry Montanans. Here it is:

Nine kids. One income, a teacher’s income. Federal Poverty Level.

Work 17-hour days. Expect little entertainment.
Work a full-time job, seasonal jobs, and home businesses.
No whining.
Get out of bed early. Stay out of bed and off the couch.
Glean potatoes, apples. Gather wild berries. Hunt.
When conditions allow, raise a garden. Raise rabbits, a calf, geese, chickens.
Slaughter. Butcher.
Can, dry, freeze and store food.
Cook from scratch. Use basic ingredients; flour, rice, beans, vegetables.
Cook in large batches. Goulash, Spanish rice, soups, stews, pan muffins, fried or baked potatoes, pancakes, waffles, bread, casseroles. Hot cereal is cheap. Boil wheat.
Plan ahead. Budget. Stretch a budget. Never buy junk food, prepared food.
Avoid fast food and restaurants.
Never waste a morsel. Keep and serve later. Meld into future dishes.
Refuse government aid, free school lunch, church charity.
Lunch: One peanut butter and honey sandwich, four carrot sticks, an apple.
Expect occasional hunger.
Fast two meals per month. Give money saved to “the poor” through the church.
Glean tomatoes and beans on the church welfare farm, “for the poor.”
Forego other spending. Wear undershirts until holes gape. Shop for clothes at the thrift store.
Never waste money on drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or electronic entertainment.
The dignity of self-reliance is not cheap. It is priceless.

Posted: November 4, 2011 at 9:52 pm

UPDATED: Mrs. Smith Going to Washington?

A woman named Diane Smith, from Whitefish, has announced a run for Congress.

Smith has an interesting profile as a candidate with some strengths and weaknesses. She has never run for office (likely a strength) and she has an impressive professional resume. She built a $190 million business in Kalispell that employs 100 people, and before moving to Montana from the DC area in 2002 she served Vice President of the Alltel cellular company. She is an author as well, having written a book on rural entrepreneurship.

At the same time, Smith is known in Whitefish to have close alliances with some local Republicans and Realtors, on key local issues like development and sprawl. And based on the feedback that has been sent to this blog in the last 24 hours, there is clearly a sector of democratic voters in Whitefish that will not be voting for her in the primary. Smith also donated in on two occasions to Rehberg and Burns, some time ago (and has also donated to Tester and other Democrats).

The wild card, of course, is that she helped found a business that is worth $190 million. Meaning she probably has some good personal wealth, which is something that the other primary candidates–Kim Gillan and Franke Wilmer–do not. Right now Kim Gillan leads the pack in terms of funds raised, and Smith is starting at zero assuming she spends no money of her own.

So it looks like we will have an interesting primary. And a feminist one, too.

UPDATE: The Flathead Memo also has a piece up on the Congressional Primary that you’ll want to read.

Posted: August 31, 2011 at 7:29 am

Does the GOP Have the Right Idea?

Congressional candidate Steve Daines was given a clear field by the GOP powerbrokers. No challenge. As a result, he’s been able to amass $600,000 in contributions.

The Democratic primary, by contrast, is a four-person race: Franke Wilmer, Kim Gillan, Rob Stutz and Dave Strohmaier. They they must split money four ways, and thus none of these candidates have amassed more than 10 percent of what Daines has raked in. And all of them, in the final months before the primary, will be forced to deplete their funds in an effort to win the primary, while Daines will horde his chips in tall stacks and continue to take in more.

Partly this problem stems from the fact that there is no democrat in the race with any state-wide recognition, such as Steve Bullock who will likely enter the governor’s race some time in the next few months.

Also, there can be a downside to powerbrokers getting involved in primaries and hand-picking a horse. Rumors have long held that the bigwigs in DC tried forcing Jon Tester out of the senate race in early 2006. If that’s true, then such a heavy handed move by the DNC, had it succeeded, would have been an utter calamity because John Morrison, a candidate with a history of adultery, would have ended up as the nominee. So primaries serve an important Darwinian purpose and should be taken seriously.

Of course Daines, for all his money, has tremendous personal problems that will eventually come to light. When that happens, we will hopefully have a strong and well financed horse in the race against him.