Quote of the day:

The best way to avoid disappointment is to not expect anything from anyone…

Today’s independent commentary deals with the Montana Primary Election. I will provide independent commentary about:

• Presidential Primary
• U.S. Senate
• Montana Governor
• U.S. House At-Large
• Disappointments/Surprises
• One More Thing

The Montana Primary was held Tuesday. It was not as exciting as I thought it would be. The Montana Secretary of State’s election website did not work for about 40 minutes. I used the New York Times election coverage for Montana and seemed to be ahead of most other folks who were posting the results.

Here are some brief thoughts on some of the races. Thanks to all the candidates!

PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY:

It is Donald Trump vs Joe Biden. Both were declared winners early. One interesting thing was that on the Republican Presidential ticket, there were almost 12,000 people who selected “No Preference” (as of midnight.). There were about 4,000 on the Democratic side. There will be more as results come in.

U.S. SENATE:

It’s going to be Democrat Steve Bullock, who is the current governor, vs. Republican incumbent Steve Daines. Daines is running for a second term.

Daines is a big supporter of Donald Trump. With the issues Trump has he may not have time to come to Montana to help Daines.

This contest will break all Montana records for money spent and it will be close.

MONTANA GOVERNOR:

It’s going to be Republican Greg Gianforte vs Democrat Mike Cooney. Gianforte is currently Montana’s U.S. Representative. Cooney is Montana’s Lt. Governor.

I think this race is for the soul of Montana. Montana Republicans will probably hold majorities in the state House and state Senate. If Gianforte wins the governorship, the Republicans will be able to ram things through (if they can get out of their own way).

A Cooney victory would be a check and balance over the Republicans controlling everything.

This race may be overshadowed by the Presidential race and especially the U.S. Senate race, but it is very important.

U.S. HOUSE AT-LARGE:

The race to see which person will rank about 435th in seniority in the U.S. House will pit Democrat Kathleen Williams vs Republican Matt Rosendale for the open house seat. Rosendale won a six-person primary. Late Tuesday night he was winning with 48% of the vote.

Williams won her contest very easily with close to 90% of the vote as of late Tuesday evening.

I think this race will be close. This is the best opportunity Montana Democrats have had to win this seat in years.

DISAPPOINTMENTS/SURPRISES:

• I was disappointed that Jon Bennion lost to Austin Knudsen in the race for Montana Attorney General. Bennion is one of the good guys. I hope he stays involved in public service.
• I was disappointed that Tim Fox lost to Greg Gianforte in the race for Montana Governor. The money that Gianforte pumped into the primary was hard to overcome. Gianforte will probably kick it up a notch in the General election.
• I was surprised that Matt Rosendale dominated the Republican six-way primary race for U.S. House. There were really only two contenders; Rosendale and Corey Stapleton.
• I am surprised that late Tuesday evening Christi Jacobsen was winning a six-way primary race for Montana Secretary of State. Jacobsen was winning by about 7,500 votes as of 11:50 p.m. with a long way to go. I hope she holds on to win it.

ONE MORE THING:

Republican Steve King of Iowa lost his primary. The Associated Press reports Republicans in northwest Iowa ousted Rep. Steve King in Tuesday’s primary, deciding they’ve had enough of the conservative lightning rod known for making incendiary comments about immigrants and white supremacy throughout his nearly two decades in Congress.

King was running for a tenth term. I would not worry about him – he will get a nice pension and probably go to work for some far-right conservative group that lobbies Congress. He’ll be OK.

Maybe national Republicans will feel the same about Donald Trump in November!

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