Here’s a look at some of the political news that caught my attention recently. Of course, I offer my commentary about each!

Public Service Commission

If you follow politics in Montana then you probably know about the feud that is happening at the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC). A few weeks ago the new chair, Travis Kavulla, R-Great Falls, and the new vice chair, Gail Gutsche, D-Missoula, penned this guest opinion that appeared in several newspapers across the state.

Recently, two other members of the PSC, Bill Gallagher, R-Helena, and Brad Molnar, R-Laurel (former vice chair and former chair) fought back with their own version of the “events” in this guest opinion that was carried in several newspapers around the state.

Maybe now they will call it even and, if you believe that, I have some oceanfront property to sell you near Lewistown. There has been more publicity for this agency in the last few months than there should ever be.

Frankly, I thought these two sentences written by Molnar and Gallagher were pretty low and far-fetched:

A 26-year-old staging two political coups in four months and enfranchising minority views that were soundly defeated by voters in the last election is indeed controversy. That can drive up utility interest rates and those eventually appear in your utility bill.

Shut the front door! Let me just say (in my humble opinion) that the public perception of at least one long-time member of the PSC is already pretty freaking low – not only low in the general public’s eyes, but low by members of his own political party.

Finally, we’d all better watch out for those 20-something people – they are tomorrow’s leaders. Thankfully some of them are leading today, working across party lines, and ensuring our government is open and functioning for its citizens.

Commissioner of Political Practices

I’ve written about this office many times. The Billings Gazette reported,

Gov. Brian Schweitzer on Friday appointed former state Rep. Dave Gallik, D-Helena, to be the state’s new political practices commissioner after the state Senate refused last month to confirm the governor’s previous pick, Jennifer Hensley.

Supposedly Gallik can hold this post until the next legislative session (Jan. 2013) and that is when he must be confirmed by the Montana State Senate.

Besides Gallik being a party insider, the whole process is pretty messed up, huh? Maybe the Montana legislature will figure out a better way to select a Commissioner of Political Practices.

What Will Brian Do

I guess some people do care. The Associated Press in Montana finally got around to writing a story about the future of Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. I felt a lot of love from the AP for the Governor in reading the article – it’s almost like the political reporters from Lee Newspapers wrote it…

By the way, I had written my commentary about the same subject way back in January. You can read the better article HERE.

Brian Schweitzer craves attention. Brian Schweitzer cannot live without it. If you remember those two things, then you will have an idea on what Brian Schweitzer’s future holds.

Tester vs. Rehberg

I was kind of amazed at this headline, “18 months from election, Tester vs. Rehberg already has flavor of full-on campaign” in the Billings Gazette on Sunday because it’s really Rehberg vs. Tester as the seat is currently occupied by Tester. Headline writers have a tough job.

Most of the stuff in the article has already been written about or linked to on this website.

Hopefully the unemployment rate in Montana will go down a few points after Tester and Rehberg hire people with the $20 million in campaign funds they will raise.

Jobs for Veterans

That has a nice ring to it. Tester and Rehberg should hire veterans! After writing about the very high unemployment rate for veterans on this website, Montana’s two senators (whose staff visits this website every few days) decided to hop on (co-sponsor) a bill to help veterans find jobs.

Besides, it’s election time for Tester and he needs veterans’ votes so he and Baucus signed on as co-sponsors of the bill and fired off press releases. Neither Tester nor Baucus served in the military.

The bill was introduced by Senator Patty Murray, who is chair of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee (Murray is not a veteran either, but she says her father is a veteran so that is supposed to make her highly-qualified to be chair).

Here’s an idea for Senators Murray, Tester and Baucus – How about a Senate hiring rule that requires 75 percent of a member’s staff be veterans…that is if you really support the hiring of veterans…

Finally…

That’s a look at some of the political stories that caught my attention in the past few days. Have a great week!