Watch out! It’s heating up in Montana’s political world! Instead of doing separate columns about the major issues, I decided to do the old “potpourri” column today!

Today I write about the Big Sky Buyoff, National Sunshine Week, the U.S Congressional primary debate, the new campaign ad from Steve Daines, defining frivolous complaints, and there’s a lot more so read on!

No “Buy” in Big Sky Buyoff:

Mountain Television Network reporter Sanjay Talwani reported this week on the Big Sky Buyoff, writing:

Here’s the theory — President Barack Obama appointed Max Baucus as the U.S. Aambassador [Sic] to China so that Montana Governor Steve Bullock could appoint John Walsh as a U.S. Senator, giving him a head-start in the November 2014 election.

A couple of batches of documents released last week by the Bullock’s office show no such thing — but state Republicans say the search for evidence of what they call the “Big Sky Buyoff” isn’t over.

I really have no problem with how Bullock handled this vacancy. If the GOP believes something illegal was done, then go to court. If the GOP or anyone else does not like the process, then work to change it.

National Sunshine Week:

The Great Falls Tribune is promoting National Sunshine Week (March 16-22) and a cartoon appears in their paper today with the question, “Do You Know What Your Gov’t Official Is Doing Today?”

Yesterday the Tribune asked the question, “Do you think the government handles record requests in a reasonable timeframe” for their poll.  The results of that poll are in today with 61% saying “No” and 11% saying “Yes” and 27% picked, “It depends. Who’s asking?”

More information about Sunshine Week can be found HERE.

In a somewhat related matter, after a couple requests I’m still waiting to get on Congressman Steve Daines’ list to receive press releases, both from his official House office and from his campaign team.

It’s Debate Time:

I received an e-mail from Ken Miller with information about a U.S Congressional primary debate hosted by the College Republicans of Montana State University that is scheduled for next Monday (March 24) at MSU-Bozeman — Ballroom A.

There’s a meet and greet 6:00-6:45pm, the doors open at 6:30pm and the official debate is 7:00-8:30pm.

Aaron Flint from the “Voices of Montana” radio show is the moderator. More information can be found HERE.

I salute the College Republicans for participating in the political process!

Daines’ New Ad:

We’ve seen the “Job Interview” ad, and the “Daughters” and “Cindy” ads, now we get to see the campaign ad called “Listen” from the Daines campaign team. You can watch it HERE.

He talks about spending his career in business and starting RightNow in Bozeman where he says they created 400 good-paying jobs. He says he uses real-world solutions that are missing from Washington, D.C. He closes it with Washington needs some Montana common sense.

This is not one of his better performances. He’s reading his lines and viewers can easily see it. He also talks about creating 400 good-paying jobs, but it’s a little confusing as the on-screen graphic says, “RightNow Grows to More Than 1,000 Employees” and cites the Bozeman Daily Chronicle dated 2/3/11.

Frivolous Complaints:

Montana’s political practices commissioner keeps plugging along.

Lee Newspapers has the story about Jonathan Motl, the state political practices commissioner, dismissing 20 complaints filed against Republican legislators by Paul Landsgaard, a Bozeman Tea Party member. Motl has also tried to define frivolous complaints.

I hope he has fun with that…

## END ##