I happened to see a letter to the editor that appeared in the Great Falls Tribune yesterday from Gary Marbut of Missoula regarding current House District 18 Representative Jesse O’Hara (Republican).  Marbut was not too happy with O’Hara’s votes on gun issues in the last Montana Legislature.  O’Hara is running for re-election.

You can read the letter HERE.

According to this website, Marbut is the President of the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA).  In his letter he throws his support behind Republican Randy Pinocci.  O’Hara and Pinocci will be facing off in the GOP primary in June and the winner will take on Democrat Colter McCarty in the General Election.

Also according to the MSSA website, O’Hara received a grade of “B” for 2010.  In 2008, O’Hara received another “B” grade and was also endorsed by the MSSA.  I guess that was just not good enough for Marbut.  So I guess according to Marbut, anyone who has at least a “B” average should not be feeling too good about it.  (Darn – there goes that good feeling I had about having a 3.5 GPA in college…)

By the way, I don’t live in HD-18, but I do know a little bit about Jesse O’Hara – and in my opinion he is very conservative – probably too conservative for many.

Of course I think it is fine for individuals and groups to support their candidates and to be vocal about it – and it appears from checking the primary races, there are many contested races.  But it’s interesting to me that Marbut wants to defeat someone who agrees with his “issue” about 80% of the time.

In his letter, Marbut did toss a few “grenades” at O’Hara saying things like “O’Hara agrees with President Barack Obama, police and Democrats in the Legislature in opposing gun bills.”  He also adds that O’Hara “regularly joins Democrats in attempts to kill pro-gun bills…”

Disclosure:  I personally own several guns…and I support the Second Amendment…and I was an expert marksman in the military…

I would venture a guess that O’Hara, who has been representing HD 18 for three terms, will cream his opponent in the primary.  It will be interesting to see when the “gun smoke” clears if Marbut will then endorse him in the General Election or if Marbut will support the Democratic candidate named “Colt”er (just in name only, I think he probably supports gun rights).

The big picture is that this is an example of how screwed up party politics are these days – especially in the GOP.  Instead of devoting resources to races where Republicans need to win an open seat or hold on to their seat, or beat a Democrat in a close race, conservative-leaning groups and individuals waste time and valuable resources fighting amongst themselves – and some do it because the incumbent Republican only received a “B” grade!  Oh…the humanity!

I know there are several individuals who completely agree with that last paragraph.  Unfortunately, they are afraid to voice their opinions as they, too, may feel the wrath of groups and individuals through negative letters to the editor, not to mention the ol’ campaign flyers being placed on constituents homes in their district with derogative information to “educate” the voter.

Of course, the Democrats also suffer some of the same problems, but a lot of their fighting is kept behind closed doors – so they must be enjoying the show and hoping O’Hara and Pinocci harm each other enough to make it an easy pickup for the Democrats.

It will be fun to watch!