It’s another Monday and that means it’s time for another edition of “Monday Morning Politics” here at The Western Word!

In this column I take a look at some of the political stories that hit the internet over the weekend – and offer some commentary about each.

This week we look at trade deals, a convention, House fundraising, a mailer, ethics, a baseball team of candidates, backroom deals and much more!

Free Trade = Jobs?

The Great Falls Tribune published a story about Montana’s U.S. Senators and the recently-passed free trade agreements.  You can read it HERE.

Sen. Max Baucus was very happy with the new free trade agreements between the United States, Colombia, South Korea and Panama saying they would “be a boon for Montana farmers and ranchers.”

Sen. Jon Tester was quoted in the Tribune article saying, “None of these agreements earned my vote for a simple reason: They won’t create jobs.”

It was interesting that Baucus/Tester disagreed on this issue and how the bills passed with bipartisan support – something we don’t see much of these days.  The South Korea trade bill passed the senate with 83 votes; the Panama trade bill passed with 77 votes, and the Colombia trade bill passed with 66 votes.

Montana Farmers Union

The Montana Farmers Union (MFU) recently held their 96th Annual Meeting and Convention in Great Falls (Montana) during which they held a gubernatorial candidates forum.

MFU leans toward Democrats, so it was surprising to read that only three Republicans and one Libertarian candidate for Montana Governor showed up for forum on Friday.  The Great Falls Tribune covered the forum.

I was worried MFU might not have enough food if all of the candidates for Governor showed up…

It appears they don’t have the clout they once had, either…

U.S. House Race Fundraising

State Sen. Kim Gillan leads the Democratic candidates for the third quarter in fundraising with State Rep. Franke Wilmer coming in second. Missoula City Council member Dave Strohmaier came in third.

Republican Steve Daines raised the most money.

Some folks have told me they think that some of the GOP candidates for Governor should switch races and run for U.S. House because they don’t care too much for Daines.  They believe he should have some competition. 

By the way, Wilmer, by far, is running the best social media campaign of all the candidates for House – in my humble opinion.

The Mailer

I eagerly awaited the arrival of the mailer from U.S. Senator Jon Tester to hit my mailbox.  It didn’t.  I wonder why the Senator does not like me.  From what I read it appears it was a taxpayer-funded mailer – so I should get one as I helped pay for it.

The Associated Press published a story about the mailer saying:

U.S. Sen. Jon Tester is touting a “record of opposing all bailouts” in a recent mail piece sent to Montana homes, despite his support for the mortgage rescue.

Tester did support the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bailout.  Tester does not call it a bailout.  His possible opponent in 2012, Denny Rehberg, called it a bailout.

So the Associated Press went to an economist to settle it:

The government put Fannie and Freddie into receivership, so the term ‘bailout’ is much more accurate than it is in the case of banks,” said Greg McBride, a senior financial analyst at Bankrate.com.

The bottom line to all of this -it was a bailout.

Ethics Pledge and a Test

The Associated Press published a story that appeared in several Montana newspapers.  In the Great Falls Tribune it was titled, “Tester’s ethics pledge put to the test.”

In 2006, we heard over and over about ethics and lobbyists:  “Jon Tester won’t just pass a law; he’ll set an example.”

Some gullible people believed him.  Others believed the lies from his campaign that his opponent would be doing 5-10 years in a Federal prison.  That wasn’t true either.  He said he would ask “a Montana judge to conduct an ethics audit of his office every year” but that fell by the wayside after one year (his opponents can thank me for bringing this up several times on this website).

Nobody would have believed that in less than five years in office Jon Tester would be ranked number one in taking lobbyist money.  That’s more than all the 435 members of the House of Representatives and the 100 members of the U.S. Senate.  He’s number one of 535 members in receiving lobbyist cash.  The sad thing about this is that Jon Tester does not have any clout yet.  He sits at the end of the bench and gets to speak after almost everyone else is done.  He has no seniority but he has somehow managed to be number one for lobbyist cash.  In-freaking-credible.

The only other thing I can add about this story is: Are you better off than you were five years ago?

Who’s on First?

Lee Newspapers published a story using a sports analogy between the Montana Governor’s race and a baseball team (I had used a football team on Twitter and on this website) and goes in-depth in looking at fundraising and the possibility of a GOP Gubernatorial candidate only needing about 12,000 votes to win the primary.

I wrote about this issue in my column called, “Too Many” on October 4.

Stand Alone Bill

The Missoulian reported that Sen. Jon Tester has attached his Forest Jobs and Restoration Act to the U.S. Senate’s Interior Department appropriations bill.

I have always thought “attaching” a major bill (like this one) to another bill is a cheap, underhanded, behind closed doors, kind of thing that makes Congress have 15% approval ratings.

This was something I thought Jon Tester was against, too. 

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