Tagged: Jon Sesso

Posted: November 16, 2012 at 4:53 pm

R’s Move Right

The GOP has thrown out its leaders, and replaced them with more ideologically conservative purists.

Jim Peterson, the Senate President, has been sent packing (literally–poor Peterson could be seen carrying his office contents, including a giant plant and a few framed pictures and a box of supplies, to his car yesterday.) Peterson’s license plate reads “REDST8″–perhaps the right-wing newbies mistook it to mean he’s a commie.

Peterson stood for re-election but was roundly defeated in favor of Christian fundamentalist, anti-cannabis crusader and hard-core rightist Jeff Essmann. Essmann proudly declared yesterday that the “Republican message was well received by voters,” though it’s hard to see how anyone could arrive at this conclusion given that the GOP won only a single statewide race and lost the rest.

Art Wittich, lawyer for the right-wing Montana Policy Institute and also a lawyer for ultra-shady American Tradition Partnership (which ignored Montana Law on the way to buying house and Senate seats for Tea partiers with secret money) is the new Senate Whip. Wittich has also called publicly for an investigation into whether hungry kids might be fed via a statewide “gleaning” program, meaning hungry kids would be fed the scraps that restaurants usually throw away.

Young gun Mark Blasdel has taken over as House Speaker. Blasdel belongs to the Todd Akin school, believing that abortion should illegal in all cases including rape. I would suspect that this position helped him gain the Speakership. Also, Blasdel is on the ALEC education task force, ALEC being the corporate front group that ghost-writes most of the legislation that state Republican legislators introduce.

Gordon Vance, a car and ATV salesman from Bozeman, will be majority leader.In Vance’s first session he only introduced one bill – a bill to help out his pals in the motor sports industry. And in 2011 he spent his time introducing bills to root out the many undocumented workers he believes have infiltrated our state, and bills to help insurance companies, and the State Fund, make more profit.

And Austin Knudson will be Senate Pro Temp. The right-winger is a former college Republican (yeah, those insufferable twits) turned attorney. He was swept in by the ATP-fueled TEA Party takeover in 2010, and has had an unremarkable career. Knudson was elected by railing against health care reform, then he eagerly accepted taxpayer funded health care benefits for himself. (So did Essmann, Wittich, Vance, and Blasdel.)

For the Dems: Jon Sesso of Butte will be Senate minority leader and Robin Driscoll of Billings and Cliff Larson of Missoula will be the whips. In the House, minority leader will be Chuck Hunter and Reps. Margie MacDonald, D-Billings, and Edie McClafferty, D-Butte are minority whips. Rep. Bryce Bennett, D-Missoula is caucus leader.

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: September 19, 2011 at 5:13 pm

Convention Notes

Dems rallied the faithful this weekend in Great Falls at the annual convention, with many speeches by the many state-wide candidates. Mostly, just a lot speechifying. The top ticket candidates did not disappoint. Tester and Bullock gave great speeches, whipping the crowd into a frenzy.

Nothing in the way of fireworks or controversy, unfortunately for bloggers, unless you count a few backhanded comments by a couple of speakers. Larry Jent, running for Governor, said he would pledge never to bring his dog to his office if he were the governor and that he’d “never disparage the legislature.” It was unclear whether Jent’s remarks were a slap at the Governor. Jent has a strange speaking style. But Schweitzer seemed to take his pound of flesh for these remarks, personally introducing Bullock to the podium with remarks that almost amounted to an endorsement.

Jon Sesso, house majority leader, said that dems need to do more than disparage the enemy, an apparent effort to tamp down the jovial anti-nut-case spirit that was reverberating through the convention.

Picking up on Sesso’s comment, sourpuss Lee Capitol beat writer Mike Dennison wrote an opinion piece on Sunday, wondering aloud whether Dems will do anything other than disparage the extreme elements of the GOP as the 2012 election season kicks in.

Dennison has a point. Democratic candidates must always, above all else, cite the work of Democrats in making Montana one of the best fiscally managed state in America, and for using the resulting funds to invest in education.

But I wonder if Dennison has listened, in the last ten years or so, to the rhetoric that emanates from the GOP? That party has reduced itself to four talking points: complaining about environmentalists, complaining about liberals, complaining about Democrats, and complaining about Obama.

Posted: April 29, 2011 at 5:10 pm

Sine Die

The legislature adjourned Sine Die last night, which in Latin means “without day” (and in Helena-speak means “we’re outta here”).

Dramatic reversal of fortune for Democrats, who came to the session as heavy underdogs facing the real possibility of becoming road kill. The GOP, upon sweeping the elections and achieving record majorities in both houses, came to town ready to make Montana Right Wing History.

Instead, Dems ran circles around the GOP for the better part of the session.

Jon Sesso and Carol Williams, the House and Senate Leaders for the Ds, thoroughly outclassed Jim Peterson and Mike Milburn, who spent most of the session looking dazed and confused, as the radicals in the GOP caucus dictated the terms and humiliated the Republican Party, an effect felt so far and wide that even Denny Rehberg’s numbers sank as a result. Often the leaders could not even get commitments on votes from their own caucus, even when the GOP leaders had made commitments to Dem leaders that they would deliver votes. From day one, Dems were disciplined and had a plan. The GOP never recovered from their early advocacy of crazy and kooky bills that made their way onto national network news shows, Comedy Central, CNN, MSNBC and FOXNews. Strangely, the GOP seems not to ever have felt at all remorseful about the bad publicity this gave Montana.

Schweitzer supplied some theatrics to put the nail in the coffin, with his wildly successful cattle branding veto party, one of the funniest stunts in Montana political history, one that left the GOP looking stupid, weak and deflated, and “bat-crap”crazy unable to respond in any meaningful way.

The 800 pound gorilla in the room the whole session was a several-hundred-million-dollar surplus created by Schweitzer and the Dems during previous sessions and over the last interim, which was bad news for the GOP because they showed up with a hammer but found no nails. In the end, the GOP will do doubt try to brag about a minimal cut of government spending, hoping that nobody reads the fine print: the Schweitzer administration had already reduced spending–submitting a budget with a myriad of thoughtful cuts before the session even began. So it was a semantic reduction for the GOP’s talking points that was ultimately agreed upon.

On big ticket items, the GOP talked tough, like Tea Party types; but fortunately they got stared down, and blinked, in the end. Like their effort, wildly popular among the Tea Party, to refuse all federal funds. The funds were restored in the final agreement.

Also problematic for the GOP, and good for the state, is an overhaul of the work comp system. Working hard in the backrooms throughout the session was Rick Hill and his wife Betti. Evidently Hill believed that having his paws and prints all over a legislative fix of Montana’s very expensive worker compensation program (premiums were the highest in the nation as of the start of the session) would be beneficial to his upcoming campaign. That dream came crashing down when Schweitzer got Milburn and Peterson, in front of all the cameras at a press event, to admit that whoever the architects of the current work comp system were, they sure as hell screwed things up. Who was the architect of the current system? Rick Hill. At the signing ceremony, I’m told that Schweitzer commended the legislators who produced the work comp fix, commended them for “their courage in being willing to admit that Rick Hill and Marc Racicot created one of the worst and most expensive work comp systems in the country.”

On the lighter side, good news that none of the famous “nut-job” bills–like the spear-hunting, the birther bill, the legalize discrimination bill, the militia bill and the nullification bill, etc.–became law. They were all either vetoed with a branding iron or died in the legislature at the hand of a coalition of D’s and a few moderate Rs. Whether these Rs can survive the Tea Party wrath in the next GOP primary is an interesting question. I am sure Roger Koopman will weigh in on it. Unfortunately, so much time was spent on nut-job bills–and an 18th century social agenda–that there wasn’t time to put together anything meaningful on jobs.

Plenty is left to be ironed out, and the Governor will do doubt be busy vetoing or signing bills for a while, including the medical marijuana revision that is very controversial. It also looks like some crap referenda will be on the ballot next fall. But overall, in the 2011 legislature, it is safe to say that the donkey handed the elephant its ass, in a very unlikely upset.

Posted: March 30, 2011 at 11:44 am

Montana Democrats Get Some Game

Rep. Betsy Hands Rep. Dick Barrett It’s a proud moment for Montanans. Democrats in the Montana House of Representatives took the opportunity, during a debate of a prominent piece of the GOP agenda, to masterfully expose the Republicans for who they really are. The Montana Lowdown has the story and the video.

Ridicule and satire are powerful political tools, especially when applied so deftly as they were yesterday, because they allow the Dems to point out the deficiencies in the GOP’s agenda in such a way threat they become absurd–even hilarious, and therefore allow them to be entertaining, and reach a wider audience.

A few highlights: In a series of tactical moves during a session of the full House of Representatives, Democrats blatantly mocked a GOP bill to require that business be transacted in gold and silver.

First master of debate Rep. Dick Barrett (D-Missoula) a professor of economics, got Rep. Bob Wagner to refuse to publicly acknowledge that “dollars” (rather than gold) even exist.

“I don’t know what other people to know as to be a dollar” said Wagner and would only call them “federal reserve notes.”

Then, Barrett proposed that money be transacted in other in-kind goods, such as chickens (a reference to Nevada Republican who, during the last election year, proposed allowing people to pay their medical bills with chickens) or coal. Next, Rep. Pat Noonan, spoke up for job creation in Butte America, by proposing Montana use a copper currency instead–a not so subtle jab at the lack of job creation on the GOP agenda, which has rather focused on extremist and downright kooky social engineering bills.

Ridicule is also effective because it’s hard for the Repubs to counter effectively - if they try to respond logically, they acknowledge the absurdity of their agenda. If they don’t respond at all, they look like their ideas are indefensible. As we saw yesterday, the tactic caused the Republican sponsor of the bill, Rep. Bob Wagner, to lose his cool, making the R’s look like hotheads, and forcing a Republican to stand up and try to defend the caucus more rationally, which can’t really be done.

If the pointed satire wasn’t enough, Rep. Betsy Hands (D-Missoula) put the final nail in the coffin when she pointed out that the new currency and the militia bill are the first steps proposed by those who advocate seceding from the union, or, as Rep. James Knox calls it “succeeding.”

Jamee Greer RT of James Knox Hilarity

Kudos to Minority Leader Jon Sesso and the leadership in the House for hitting on the perfect technique for a session such as this. Your strategy is a winning one.

Posted: February 20, 2011 at 10:37 am

Editorial Board Calls Out GOP for Wasting Session On Frivolous Bills

The Missoulian’s editorial board today excoriates the Montana Legislature for focusing on social issues and frivolous, unconstitutional bills instead of focusing on jobs.

Exactly how do these proposals relate to jobs and Montana’s still-struggling economy? For that matter, why are legislators talking about requiring ultrasounds for pregnant women considering abortion? Why are they talking about the death penalty, or asserting state sovereignty, or creating a “home guard”?

The short opinion piece is not to be missed.

House Democratic Minority Leader Jon Sesso and Governor Brian Schweitzer have been urging a focus on jobs rather than crazy and unconstitutional bills from day one:

“Your mission, members of the Legislature, is to prepare Montana for that new day,” Schweitzer said. “A day of more opportunity, more freedom, lower taxes, new opportunity, better schools and higher paying jobs.”

“This is the sixth or seventh bill to nullify our participation in the union of the states. The last time I checked we were a member of the United States — and the last time I checked that union was very beneficial to Montana in many ways,” House Minority Leader Jon Sesso of Butte said in floor debate. “This is absolute folly. This bill and every bill like it.”

Posted: January 19, 2011 at 7:49 am

Calling It Like It Is

The values that the Democrats and Republicans are talking about this session should lead to some common ground:

Governor Schweitzer is focused on higher paying jobs. So are Sen. Carol Williams of Missoula, the Senate Minority Leader, and Rep. Jon Sesso of Butte, the House Minority Leader, who co-wrote a guest editorial that highlighted the economic climate that brings higher paying jobs.

From the opinion in today’s IR:

We see a state that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce ranked No. 1 for entrepreneurs and business start-ups. We see a state that Forbes magazine called one of the fastest climbers among business-friendly states. We see a state with the fastest growing oil production in the nation. We see a state that just opened its first new coal mine in 29 years, producing 235 good jobs. In Butte, we’re proud of the new foundry and 60 workers that are making titanium parts for customers around the world.

Meanwhile, however, the GOP message is all over the place.

First, leader Millburn says Republicans aren’t focused on social issues. Right. Next thing you know, a chunk of Republicans runs out with a big media circus all about….chipping away at constitutional rights.

Then another Republican faction claims they are all about the Constitution and forms its own caucus. Meanwhile, some Republicans are working in committees to lie about the state of the budget in order to make massive cuts to essential services for schools, the elderly and the disabled.

Cuts that aren’t justified given, as Williams and Sesso point out, that last session Schweitzer and the dems:

Passed a balanced budget and left $300 million in the bank to ride out the downturn we saw coming. We’re still in the black today, and the budget we pass for the next two years will keep us there. At the same time, we will eliminate the business equipment tax for most small businesses, reduce homeowners’ property taxes, and keep a healthy balance (more than $100 million) in savings to protect against any more bumps in the road.