29 December 2016
Casey Schreiner will seek Democratic nod to replace Zinke in U.S. House
Great Falls Democrat Casey Schreiner, just elected to his third term in the Montana House of Representatives, announced yesterday that he’ll seek his party’s nomination for the special election that will be held to replace Rep. Ryan Zinke when (and if) Zinke is confirmed as Secretary of the Interior.
Schreiner joins Rep. Amanda Curtis (D-Butte) as a candidate for the nomination. According to Logicosity’s Edward R. Burrow, with whom I agree, Curtis has the best chance of winning the nomination:
With but one legislative session (2013) and a riveting, but ultimately unsuccessful bid for the US Senate following her appointment less than 80 days before the election, Amanda has obviously made an impression. Her ambition coupled with Eric Feaver’s influence within the D Party gives her the edge. MEA-MFT is already sponsoring posts on Facebook on her behalf.
As Logicosity notes, a lot of familiar names — Denise Juneau, Monica Lindeen, Jesse Laslovich, even John Morrison — are being mentioned as potential Democratic candidates. All lost their last election. None will run. They’re being mentioned only because they’re familiar.
The Democrats need a fresh face and a fresh approach for this election. If the party nominates someone who uses the old median voter playbook that runs the candidate to the right on a platform of squishy and mealy-mouthed planks, trying to win the votes of mythical moderate Republicans, that candidate will lose, and by a three to two margin.
A Democrat who wins this election will win it by running a guerrilla campaign while preaching the party’s old time religion: support for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid; for an everyone covered for everything national single-payer health care system; for food stamps and nutrition assistance for women and infants; for clean energy; for clean air and water; for labor and unions; for tuition-free public colleges; for job security, a closing of the income inequality gap, and a rising tide that lifts everyone. Think Paul Wellstone.
Does such a candidate exist? I hope so. Would Montana’s Democrats, and their deeply conservative and cautious leaders, roll the dice and nominate that candidate? Only if they muster the acumen to recognize that however risky rolling the dice is, it offers a chance of winning while the median voter strategy ensures another defeat.