A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Montana’s Republican Party has a new chairman, Rep. Jeff Essmann of Billings. He defeated incumbent chairman Will Deschamps and far right candidate Dan Happle. The party’s vice chair, Sen. Jennifer Fielder, was elected to a second term.
I suspect the main reason for choosing Essmann was to have a new face at the top, someone who could start with a clean slate. The GOP won elections under Deschamps, but it didn’t always win battles in the legislature even with a three to two majority in both houses.
Essmann promised he’ll work hard to bridge the gap between the party’s libertarians, who control 80 percent of the GOP’s legislative seats, and traditionalists. For most of the libertarians, that means finding a way to prevent the traditionalists from joining Democrats to form a governing majority.
That’s not likely to happen right away, if happen it does. But Montanans should have no doubts that the libertarian, tea party Republican, dream is a tightly disciplined, veto-proof majority in both the Montana House and Montana Senate that could steamroll the governor and allow the legislature to run the state. Essmann’s unspoken mandate is leading the MTGOP to that kind of power.