Serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis. © James Conner.
Provocative essays by Flathead Beacon columnists Dave Skinner (last week) and Mike Jopek (yesterday) are worth reading.
Skinner’s Into the Darkness summarizes recent developments in dark money politics in Montana, and levels sharp criticism at the level of transparency surrounding Initiative 168, the effort by Republican legislators to direct sunlight on the sources of money for ugly right wing campaigns such as those against Republican State Senators Bruce Tutvedt and Carmine Mowbray last year. I-168’s website does little to enlighten voters on the people and dollars behind the initiative, and Skinner’s comments are on target.
The campaign for I-168 should be bipartisan, but that’s apparently not going to happen because onto the dark money initiative, Republicans are piggybacking an effort to raise Sandy Welch’s profile for her 2016 campaign for superintendent of public instruction. She came within 2,000 votes of Denise Juneau in 2012, and will be a strong contender for an open office (Montana’s imbecilic term limits prevent Juneau from running for a third term). Be sure to read Welch’s response to Skinner in the comments section.
Jopek’s Working the Land paean to women in politics covers a lot of ground, but his key assertion is:
More women are entering politics. The majority of Montana House Democrats are women. Women candidates tend to win and are good at governing.
Sentences one and two are true, but I’d like to see some proof for sentence number three. Do more women win than lose? Does a higher percentage of women than men win? How good are women at governing? As good as men? Better than men? How do Sarah Pahlin and Kim Gillan and all the Democratic women who ran for Congress in Montana and lost fit into this paradigm?
Democrats should focus not on chromosomes and ethnic origins but on issues and the abilities of individuals when choosing people for elective and appointive office. We are not blessed with such a surfeit of talent that we can afford the indulgence of rejecting merit in favor of identity politics.