Flathead Dem dinner was 400% as expensive as a 1970 DFL bean feed

In October, 1970, Minnesota’s Democratic Farmer-Labor Party held a big dinner — a DFL Bean Feed, to use the party’s lingo; and yes, beans were on the menu — at the Minneapolis Armory. Former Peace Corp director Sargent Shriver was the headline speaker. The featured politicians were former U.S. Senator and Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, running again for the senate, and Wendell Anderson, running for governor. Both won their elections.

The price of a ticket? Two dollars. Adjusted for inflation, approximately twelve 2017 dollars.

Two days ago, Flathead County’s Democratic Party held its big spring dinner at the Hilton in Kalispell. Sen. Jon Tester and congressional candidate Rob Quist were the featured speaker. It wasn’t a paper plate and Campbell’s Pork ‘n Beans affair like the DFL bean feeds I remember. Tickets were $45 at least three days in advance. Nevertheless, the dinner sold out. Financially, it was a resounding success.

But socially and politically, it was another example of how far Democrats have moved from the poor and middle class voters they used to represent. Forty-five-dollar tickets to the party’s major dinners are beyond the means of the party’s Widow Murphys, who live on triple-digit Social Security payments, and who volunteer for hours stuffing envelopes and making telephone calls.

A burgers, beans, and beer, bash at a union hall for $15 a head would be a lot more affordable for low earning working people and for impoverished seniors. It might be an unsettling experience, an exercise in slumming, for the snooty Clintonites who still control the Democratic Party, but for some of us it would be a return to the party’s roots and the road to winning elections again.

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Kalispell Quist rally draws overflow crowd

Yesterday afternoon, an overflow crowd of at least 100–125 Democrats, assembled in Kalispell’s picturesque Central School Museum to hear Sen. Jon Tester lead a rally for congressional candidate Rob Quist. The rally was followed by a sold-out Flathead Democratic dinner at the Hilton.

Below, a few images from the rally.

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Three Lee newspapers endorse Gianforte

Today the Billings Gazette, Missoulian, and Helena Independent Record, three of the four major Lee Enterprises newspapers in Montana, endorsed Greg Gianforte for Congress. This is no surprise given Lee’s reputation for unbridled greed.

None of the newspapers was crass or honest enough to write an endorsement editorial that said “We’re endorsing Greg Gianforte because he’s the best bet for our corporate masters to make more money.” Instead, each editorial writer strung together a list of weak arguments before concluding, in the manner of a sad but wise parent, that Gianforte is the lesser evil.

But, I believe, the endorsements were made fundamentally because Lee wants Montana represented in the U.S. House by another Republican. That provides the highest odds that Congress will pass, and President Trump will sign, legislation lowering taxes on businesses and the wealthy. And that’s why the Gazette’s high command had Tom Lutey writing stories presenting Rob Quist in an unfavorable light.

At Intelligent Discontent, Don Pogreba examines the arguments in the editorials, and Pete Talbot reports on the increasing concentration of right wing news media in Montana.

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Real estate law expert sets record straight on Quist’s barn

Guest post by Rich deJana, Esq

As a lawyer who practices property rights and real estate law in Kalispell, I was shocked to read a “Billings Gazette” article that overtly implies wrongdoing by a Flathead County resident who actually did nothing wrong.

It didn’t take me long to realize the reporter, Tom Lutey, doesn’t understand property rights and taxation law, in fact, even the headline was incorrect. Let’s start there.

That headline, “Quist has ties to rental property not listed on state tax rolls,” is patently false. This accusation has every property rights lawyer in the state laughing. The Quist property is on the tax rolls. MDOR has assessed it as rural residential (not commercial). The current MDOR classification AAB2 accurately identifies the barn as a residential structure in fair condition. Yet the article goes on to imply that because the structure is technically described by MDOR as a “Standard Barn” the Quists are committing some sort of wrongdoing. Nothing could be further from the truth.

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Montana special election voter turnout updates

How long does it take the U.S. Postal Service to carry mail ballots from Whitefish to Kalispell? In one case, at least a week, perhaps longer. Last night, a friend in Whitefish reported he had mailed his ballot on 5 May, and it still wasn’t listed in the Montana Secretary of State’s online database of accepted mail ballots. Another friend who lives ten miles east of Kalispell, near the Swan Range, also mailed his ballot on 5 May. It was received by the Flathead County Elections Department on 11 May.

Six days to travel ten miles. One-hundred-forty-four hours to travel 52,800 crow flying feet. How fast is that? It’s 1.22 inches per second. One mile per hour is 17.6 inches per second. Try walking that slowly. It’s not easy, but we know it can be done because that’s how fast the postman is carrying ballots from east of Creston to Kalispell.

Most mail ballots are entrusted to the U.S. Slowpoke Service twice. Once from the elections department to the voter, once from the voter to the elections department. Now I know why ballots are mailed out 30 days in advance of the election’s close.

And that’s why I’ll vote in person on 25 May. The elections department worker hands me my ballot directly. After mark my ballot in a privacy booth, I’ll walk, at approximately 50 inches per second, to the ballot counting machine, insert my ballot into the machine, receive the message that my ballot has been accepted, and head home knowing that neither rain nor snow nor a snail-paced letter carrier kept my ballot from being cast before the polls closed.

Almost 23 percent of Montana’s registered voters have cast their ballots already. In the 2016 Montana primary, 45.2 percent of the registered voters, and 26.7 percent of the voting eligible population, cast ballots. In the 8 June 1993 special sales tax election, the turnout of registered voters was 69.2 percent; VEP turnout was 50.6 percent.

Here are the county-by-county turnout figures through 11 May, followed by the absentee ballot return rate through the same date.

Bernie Sanders will campaign in Montana next weekend. According to Rob Quist’s campaign, Sanders will hold rallies in Missoula, Butte, and Bozeman, on Saturday, 20 May, and in Billings on Sunday, 21 May. Quist’s campaign says the events are open to all, but they want you to RSVP. There’s no charge for attending, but RSVPing surely will generate a plea for dollars, and the campaign just might check your name against a list of known Republicans.

Also, “Press credentials will be required for all media to attend.” That’s how Republican and right wing media trackers will be excluded from the rally.

Sanders is appearing late in the game for a 30-day stretch of voting, but his presence should pep up Quist’s GOTV operation, and might get the favorable attention of fence straddlers who increasingly doubt the wisdom of sending Greg Gianforte to cheer, and vote, for the Trump-Ryan bills to sabotage the Affordable Care Act.

Flathead Democrats big dinner is tonight. You can buy tickets at the door — and once inside, bid on the Quist cowboy hat that’s being silently auctioned off. Sen. Jon Tester is the headline speaker.

Kalispell Women’s Event with Bonni and Halladay Quist runs from 1300 to 1430 today. Bonnie is Rob’s wife. Halladay is his daughter.

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Flathead has lowest absentee ballot return rate in Montana

Updated 14 May. Montana’s absentee voters had by 9 May returned 33.7 percent of the 346,916 absentee ballots sent out thus far in the special congressional election than ends on 25 May. Teton County, at 48.8 percent, had the highest rate of return, while at 11.9 percent Flathead County had the lowest — and the lowest by far. The next lowest, Missoula County, had a return rate almost ten percent higher. The Flathead’s return rate is so low that it could be a data reporting anomaly, but for now I accept the Montana Secretary of State’s numbers as accurate.

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Blame the Gazette’s high command, not Lutey

Yesterday, the Billings Gazette published another story on Rob Quist’s finances. Citing the newspaper’s 24 March interview with Lutey, and written by political reporter Tom Lutey, the story alleged Quist is connected to a rental property that is improperly taxed.

Writing on his personal Facebook page, Missoula County Treasurer Tyler Gernant, an attorney and Democrat, took issue with the story, but focused his ire on Lutey.

Gernant, and the rest of Lutey’s critics, should focus their ire not on the Gazette’s reporter but on the newspaper’s high command. Adverse stories can have far more impact on the outcome of the election than any editorial page support for a candidate. The people Lutey works for are the ones who ultimately are responsible for the tone, content, and timing of his stories on Quist’s finances.

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Tester & Quist headline big Democratic dinner in Kalispell Saturday

Sen. Jon Tester and Democratic candidate for Congress Rob Quist will speak at the Flathead Democratic Party’s big spring dinner and fundraiser at the Kalispell Hilton on Saturday, 13 May. Tickets are still available and can be purchased online at www.flatheaddemocrats.com or by mail or at the door.

Luke Walrath and Betsi Morrison will provide entertainment.

The hat may or may not be passed, but participants in the silent auction will be able to bid on one of Quist’s big cowboy hats from the campaign trail.

For more information, call Terri at 406-730-2741 or visit the Flathead Democratic Party’s website.

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Them polls, them polls, them damn polls —
They still show Greg’s leading Rob

A month ago, a Gravis poll reported Greg Gianforte was leading Rob Quist by 12 percentage points. Last Thursday, the day the U.S. House voted to eviscerate the Affordable Care Act, another Gravis poll reported Gianforte’s lead had shrunk to seven points. Gianforte has dropped below 50 percent, and undecideds have increased, but Quist is holding steady at slightly below 40 percent.

…read the rest

Guest post by Mary Moe — Why I voted for Rob Quist

By Mary Moe

I have known Rob Quist since I was in college, where his wife and I were good friends. But that’s not why I voted for him.

I have watched Rob evolve as a musician – from a talented Jubileer at the U of M to a guitarist/singer in the popular Mission Mountain Wood Band to the respected singer/songwriter/player of many instruments that he is today. But that’s not why I voted for him.

I have observed Rob raise two great kids but care for many more, and struggle with his health and finances but contribute his time and talent over and over again to many Montana causes. But that’s not why I voted for him.

Over the course of nearly half a century, I’ve known Rob Quist to be a man of heart. Year after year, decade after decade, he has shown himself to be unfailingly kind to, concerned about, and truly interested in everyone he encounters. Because he cares about people, he respects varied points of view, understands that the experiences of Montanans are as varied as Montana’s landscape, and has spent his adult life trying to hear, understand, and express those perspectives and experiences in ways that will make all our lives better.

Year after year, decade after decade, Rob has shown the deep love he has for the land we call Montana, the science and history and art that have shaped it, and the people who rely on it, not just for a livelihood, but for a way of life that goes deeper than economics or even recreation, a way of being that becomes core to who you are.

I want an individual with that kind of heart representing me and you at a time when truly caring about the human agenda and being candid about what your part in that agenda really is have never been more important. That’s why I voted for Rob Quist. I hope you will too.

Moe is a former State Senator from Great Falls. Flathead Memo is honored to publish her essay explaining why she voted for Rob Quist.

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Notes on the special congressional election

Another poll confirms that the Quist-Gianforte gap is narrowing. A Garin-Hart-Yang poll conducted 25–27 April for the Senate Majority PAC, a Democratic group, found Republican Greg Gianforte leading Democrat Rob Quist by six points, 44 to 38 percent, among midterm voters who said they will vote in the 25 May special congressional election in Montana.

The sampling margin of error for GHY’s 601-person sample is four percent. The probability that Gianforte is leading is 93 percent.

Among “enthusiastic” voters, Gianforte’s lead was just one point. If I were trying to raise money or pep up volunteers, I would cite the enthusiastic number. But because 95 percent of the voters polled said they intended to vote, and an unenthusiastic vote counts just as much as an enthusiastic vote, I’m going with the 44–38 percent margin.

The GHY one-pager contains cherry picked data arranged to present the best case for Quist. It’s partly propaganda, so curb your enthusiasm.

New DCCC anti-Gianforte ad is an exercise in political blackjacking. If Bozeman businessman Greg Gianforte were a refugee from Syria, the Montana and National Democratic Parties would welcome him to Montana with open arms. But because he’s an American who once lived in New Jersey, and who earned hundreds of millions of dollars in Montana, the DCCC’s message makers consider him a form of life lower than the beheaders of ISIS. Here’s the DCCC’s latest effort to pull politics deeper into the gutter:

Don’t send the DCCC any money. It doesn’t know how to spend it wisely.

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Flathead Electric rate increases for 2010–2017 run ahead of inflation

My bill from the Flathead Electric Cooperative arrived in my email traffic over the weekend, together with a not unexpected, but still not welcome, announcement that residential rates are going up.

FEC’s residential rates increase annually by a few percent. Each increase seems small in isolation, but over time they add up. The table below displays the rates for 2010 through 2017, both in current dollars and 2017 dollars. For the multi-year period, the price is increasing faster than inflation.

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Flathead Memo is standing down today

The time usually allocated to writing is being temporarily re-allocated to mowing the green, green, and all too tall, grass of my lawn. Back to blogging tomorrow.

Quist-Gianforte polling gap down to single digits

Two weeks ago, an Emerson College poll reported Republican Greg Gianforte was leading Democrat Rob Quist by 15 points, 52–37 percent. Yesterday, in a story on Gianforte’s two-faced statements on his support for the Trump-Ryan health care sabotage bill, the New York Times reported the race had tightened:

Quist, against heavy odds, is on the move. That’s why Vice President Mike Pence, and prairie dog assassin Donald Trump, Jr., are headed for Montana to stump for Gianforte.

Gianforte’s old hunting mistake is not a BFD

Seventeen years ago, Greg Gianforte was fined $70 for illegally killing an elk in Park County.

Gianforte’s critics should not succumb to the temptation to accuse him of poaching or a cover-up. His experience was nothing more than an embarrassing bout of buck fever. There’s no legitimate tie-in to the election.

Candidates never learn that excess candor with donors costs votes

Remarks made privately to fat cat donors always leak — and political candidates never seem to learn from the misfortunes of other politicians.

• Mitt Romney was surreptitiously video recorded telling a room full of high roller that 47 percent of Americans are tax avoiding bums who mooch off the makers.


• Hillary Clinton was video recorded telling high dollar donors at a fundraiser that members of the white working class were deplorable homophobes and racists.

Both lost, and both lost partly because they said stupid things in a effort to elicit a substantial campaign contribution.

If Gianforte loses this election, he’ll lose it at least in part because of his conflicting statements on the Trump-Ryan health care sabotage bill. Voters don’t like being lied to — at least not so egregiously.

Can Quist exploit Gianforte’s health care blunder?

Yes — but only, I suspect, if hospital executives and board members, who generally are horrified by Trump-Ryan’s gutting of Medicare, stand up and endorse Quist. Don’t hold your breath waiting for that to happen. In Montana, most of those people are Republicans, and lack the wisdom and courage to take a stand in public.

Don’t watch or listen to political ads

Change the channel or radio station, or turn off your television or radio. You’ll learn nothing useful from a 30-second ad. The same goes for printed propaganda that candidates and meddlesome third parties inflict on voters. Rip the cards and brochures to shreds and set them on fire.

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Democrats want to make a deal, Republicans want to make a point

Last night, I rebuked Sen. Jon Tester for what I consider his excessively enthusiastic devotion to reaching across the aisle in search of compromise, which he seems to regard as an intrinsic rather than an instrumental good. Such gestures, I opined, would be greeted not with a handclasp but with a refusal to make common cause. That observation put me at odds with some Democrats and fellow bloggers.

Their pushback provides an opportunity to recommend Asymmetric Politics: Ideological Republicans and Group Interest Democrats, by Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins (Oxford University Press, 7 September 2016). Here are a few excerpts:

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Is Jon Tester going rogue on the Affordable Care Act?

He might, reports The Hill:

Tester’s spokesman, Luke Jackson, said the senator does not support the bill just passed by the U.S. House.

But Tester clearly wants voters to think he’ll reach across the aisle and take the extra step to reach a compromise because, well, Democrats think compromise is intrinsically meritorious and that making a deal, even a bad deal or a dumb deal, is blessed by Heaven because it feels so good to make a noble sacrifice. Which is to say, Tester is trying to appear reasonable.

After today’s health care vote in the U.S. House, it should be clear that anyone who believes Democrats can cut acceptable deals with Donald Trump and Paul Ryan is delusional. It’s time for Democrats — and that includes Tester — to lay down their olive branches and pick up their swords and shields. It’s time to fight.

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Quist rips U.S. House’s approval of Trump-Ryan ACA repeal bill

A couple of hours ago, the Republicans in U.S. House voted 217–213 to repeal the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) and replace it with a stingy system that the rich will love and the poor will recognize as closely akin to the status quo ante. Twenty Republicans voted against the bill. No Democrat voted for it.

Following the vote, Rob Quist, Democratic candidate for the U.S. House in the 25 May special election to replace Ryan Zinke, issued the following statement:

No decent human being would vote for such a bill, either. But Bozeman businessman Greg Gianforte would — which is why it’s in the enlightened self-interest of decent Montanans to vote for Rob Quist.

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Why is Quist talking about Gianforte’s Russian investments when the
U.S. House is ready to pass the meanest health care bill in history?

Quist should be talking about health care today — and only about health care. Yet, his campaign is issuing press handouts flogging the dead horse of Greg Gianforte’s minor investment in a few Russian companies of dubious character. This is nuts. And it’s how Democrats lose elections.

Get medical treatment now while you still have health insurance

If you’ve been putting off elective surgery, schedule it now, while you still have health insurance. The U.S. House is voting today on the latest iteration of the Ryan-Trump bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act. The repealer is a Devil’s Christmas tree, festooned with toxic tinsel, radioactive ornaments, policy bombs, and naked bribes. As Kevin Drum notes at Mother Jones, there’s no text, no CBO score, etc:

It’s possible because these legislators don’t give a damn whether poor people live or die. If this bill fails, Trump and Ryan will cobble together another bill, and another, until something, anything, passes. Then the U.S. Senate will be on the spot — and the Senate will pass some kind of repeal bill. If you need a triple-bypass, get it now while you can still pay for it.

$200k cut to CSKT Compact implementation emits unpleasant aroma

Gov. Steve Bullock invested considerable time and political capital to get the CSKT Water Compact approved by the Montana Legislature. The agreement, still awaiting Congressional approval, places certain implementation obligations on Montana, according to DNRC Director John Tubbs. Reports Lee reporter Jayme Fraser:

But the money to pay for it, a $200,000 appropriation for the Montana Reserved Water Rights Compact Commission, was removed from the budget last week by a bipartisan committee because it was thought wrongly that it wasn’t needed.

This affair has a stinkwater aroma to it. Someone knew what was happening. Therefore, everyone’s “Gee willikers, how did that happen?” means someone is lying.

After investing so much in getting the compact passed, it’s inconceivable that Bullock ignored the need to fund implementation and the obligations to which the compact obligates Montana. Those obligations will be met by messing around with the DNRC’s funding, so the failure to appropriate the $200,000 amounts to a de facto cut to the DNRC’s budget.

Why would Bullock, or Villa acting on Bullock’s behalf, accept that backdoor cut? Most likely to protect a $200,000 pot of money for other purposes. Less likely, but still possible, B & V relaxed their guard, letting Ballance sneak one past them.

Someone needs to step forward with the truth.

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Rob Quist kicks off election month by voting early

Smart political candidates always vote at the earliest possibly moment, making the event a photo opportunity for the local news media. Back in the day, before election day became election month, and photographers used 4x5 Speed Graphics and No. 25 flashbulbs, the event was quite a production. If staged well, the event resulted in a big black and white image of the beaming candidate depositing his ballot in the box being splashed above the fold of the local evening newspaper. Presumably, that incited procrastinators to vote before the polls closed.

Now there are 30 consecutive election days, small digital cameras, and a lot less drama. But the custom of early voting is still observed. Here’s Rob Quist voting in Kalispell yesterday.

To echo J.M. Brown over at The Western Word, if you’re voting by absentee ballot, there’s a good argument for not marking your ballot for at least a couple of weeks given how much is happening with the election.

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Even with a mail ballot, School District 5 turnout was shamefully low

Betty Albright, an incumbent trustee, and Diane Morton Stout, were elected to the board, defeating Rebecca Linden and Scott Plotkin. Just 21.7 percent of the 17,008 ballots were returned. The unofficial results are posted on the school district’s website, and will be ratified at a school board meeting later this month.

No one should be surprised by the shamefully low turnout. The election was non-partisan. There were no issues (such as more football vs. no football). It was simply a contest of competing credentials and promises to work hard and make good decisions.

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Do mail ballots present an identity theft risk?

With considerable reluctance and misgivings, I cast my school election ballot by mail late last week. Normally, I deliver the ballot in person, and thus have given no thought to the implications of having my signature on the outside of the return envelope.

But this year, I had to consider the issue. Placing my signature on the outside of the envelope, in plain sight, puts it as risk of being photographed by a rogue USPS employee using a cell phone or a concealed camera. Because it’s an official signature, it has value to an identity thief.

To reduce the risk, I placed my signed return envelope, my ballot inside in the security envelope, in a plain white envelope and cast my ballot that way. I also enclosed in the plain white wrapper a tart note admonishing the school district for putting signatures at risk.

Don’t believe public officials when they aver mail ballots are secure. They are not, and the postcard privacy level afforded to one’s official signature is an invitation to identity theft.

Are voters required to vote for two candidates, or can they vote for just one? The ballot reads “VOTE FOR TWO.” As far as I know, voting for just one candidate is legal. I therefore think the ballot ought to read “Vote for no more than two candidates.”

I did vote for two, but with misgivings. School trustee elections are nonpartisan. Without knowledge of the would be trustee’s politics, I have no way of ascertaining the candidates values and policy preferences. I try to make an informed choice, but it’s really just a crapshoot. I sometimes wonder if not voting would reduce the odds that the worst candidate might win.

Finally, as long as a mark is within the box, or unambiguously identifies the candidate the voter has selected, the ballot should be counted. Trying to limit voters to an “X” within the box is not consistent with a voter friendly policy, but it’s fully consistent with the anal retentive mindset that one finds in authoritarian institutions such as schools.

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Will the “Tu QuoQue, Gianforte,” strategy
negate attacks on Quist’s personal finances?

Republican attacks ads featuring Democratic candidate Rob Quist’s untidy personal finances are doing considerable damage to Quist. He cannot change his past, but he can argue that Greg Gianforte’s finances are just as untidy, thereby inviting voters to conclude that Quist’s and Gianforte’s sins negate each other. That’s why Quist’s campaign is pushing the preposterous notion that Gianforte’s Russian financial assets make him a security risk and may violate sanctions against Russia.

Gianforte is telling Quist, “Your finances stink,” and Quist is retorting, “Yours don’t smell so sweet, either.” Gianforte is accusing Quist of irresponsibility. Quist is accusing Gianforte of hypocrisy, and hinting that two wrongs make a right.

Politically, this might work. Although the “you’re another” comeback, the tu quoque fallacy, is an argument that’s quickly shredded in formal debates, it can be a powerful response in the real world.

Quist, as noted at Logicosity this morning, is not gaining traction. Time is running out. Absentee ballots are in the mail. Voting begins this week. Praying is not enough. That’s why Quist’s throwing a Hail Mary pass to drag the receiver and defender down in the mud.

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