Tagged: Judy Martz

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: 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”.

Posted: August 26, 2011 at 6:22 am

GOP Unpopularity Reaches Naked Judy Martz Levels

Just 22% approve of the job performance of Republican congressional leaders according to a new Pew Research Center poll, down from 33% two weeks ago. Those are some low numbers. Low enough to be comparable to the extremely unpopular Judy Martz, Montana’s most recent Republican Governor. Martz nose-dived to an approval rating of 20% and decided not to run for re-election.

Even though Judy Martz was the most unpopular Governor in Montana history, Republicans seem drawn to the Judy Martz model of candidate. After all, TEA Party Congressman Dennis Rehberg has already publicly voiced his support for Michele Bachmann at a Republican dinner earlier this year.

Here’s the video:

Not sure why his handlers were quick to try to spin him back from that statement. Perhaps they’re Ron Paul supporters.

We do know that Bachmann and Martz share many traits beyond just stupidity and nut-job politics. Like Judy Martz, who often refused to talk to reporters and demanded they submit questions in writing in advance, Bachmann has begun avoiding reporters who she believes will ask hard questions. Both Republicans are known for their outrageous public gaffes, their belief in forcing their fundamentalist religious views on others, and their insistence on wearing nude pantyhose with sandals.

This kind of thing must appeal to GOP men. Bachmann has been compared to Sarah Palin, while Martz is rumored to be featured on the wall Great Northern Town Center in Helena, as a nude bordello dancer, below, in what is known in political circles as “the Naked Judy Martz Mural.” The full mural can be viewed here.

closeup — The figure on the left is rumored to be Martz.

The women are not exact clones, however. At least we have no knowledge of Bachmann covering up a homicide. And when a T-Paw aide called Bachmann “sexy,” she said she took it as a compliment.

Martz, not so much. When the mural appeared, the Governor made her top aide drive her down to see it and declared it wasn’t her:

“I’m a very modest person, no one would ever see me like that. My husband doesn’t ever see me like that.”

Posted: June 24, 2011 at 5:14 pm

Poll: Essmann, Hill Unpopular with Montana Voters; Schweitzer, Bohlinger, Bullock Popular

Anyone who smokes pot (or is supportive of medical marijuana) will be happy to know that anti-cannabis crusader Jeff Essmann, who has recently claimed an interest in running for Governor, has a negative popularity rating of almost 4-1. That’s worse than any politician polled in Montana since Judy Martz.

For every six Montanans who like Essmann, 22 say they don’t like him.

Rick Hill also has surprisingly high negatives. 30-20 against. These are terrible numbers for a candidate to start out with. Essmann’s numbers are not surprising, but Hill is really weaker than I expected. This is because he hails from Congress, and Montanans don’t really like Congress or Washington.

Worse yet, John Bohlinger would slap down Essmann in a head to head race if Bohlinger ran as a Democrat, by seven points. This tells me that Essmann’s gubernatorial aspirations appear to have taken a major blow, and his marijuana act might have been a major miscalculation on his part, a politically tone-deaf stunt that libertarian Montanans are upset about. Ken Miller would likewise lose to Bohlinger. Former state senator Corey Stapleton did not even get polled, nor did terrorism expert Neil Livingstone, who skipped most of the GOP convention last weekend. So these guys are sort of a joke, at least for now, although Livingstone has millions of personal wealth, so don’t count him out totally.

And, Steve Bullock and Bohlinger both are roughly even against the mer-man, Rick Hill. Schweitzer remains at top of list nationally as most popular Democratic governor.

The Hill-Bullock number is surprising because this same polling company (which is known for a slightly conservative bias, btw) had Hill beating Bullock by almost ten points when they polled five months ago. Remember too that this poll didn’t didn’t take into account the Libertarian in the race, Ron Vandevender, who as a third party candidate has the potential to take a large percentage of the conservative vote – especially if Hill is the GOP nominee.

The only explanation is that the republican brand has taken a severe beating in Montana because of the wild and wacky legislative session. As this blog predicted, it dragged the GOP down across the board.

Posted: November 30, 2010 at 12:16 pm