Quote for the Day…

Anything that costs you your peace is too expensive…learn to let it go. – Unknown

In today’s column, I look at these people/issues:

• Election Results & Thoughts
• U.S. Representative Sam Graves
• The Western Word Poll

ELECTION RESULTS & THOUGHTS:

First, a big thank you to all the candidates who ran for office.

I figured the Republican primary race for Montana’s 2nd Congressional District would be called early and the Associated Press called it at 8:42 pm for Republican Matt Rosendale. Rosendale will face Democrat Penny Ronning and Libertarian Sam Rankin in November.

When the first set of numbers from the Great Falls Tribune were posted for the Cascade County Sheriff’s race, I was surprised that incumbent Sheriff Jesse Slaughter was winning by 4800 votes over Jay Groskreutz with 90% of the votes counted. With what is probably an insurmountable lead in the primary race and with no Democrat challenger in November, Slaughter will win another four-year term.

The Republican primary race for Montana’s 1st Congressional District was neck and neck with Al Olszewski leading Ryan Zinke early, but then Zinke came back to take the lead by about 1400 votes with 36% of the votes in. Then Olszewski came back to take a slight lead with 60% of the votes counted. Then Zinke took a two-vote lead with 62% of the vote in around 10:30 pm. This race may take a while to decide.

On the Democratic side, Monica Tranel trounced her opponents, Tranel had a 10,000-vote lead with 39% of the votes in. She was declared the winner at 10:16 pm.

Another interesting race is for Montana Supreme Court with Ingrid Gustafson leading James Brown by about 28,000 votes. There’s still a long way to go in this race at post time.

Early numbers show Yellowstone voters voting against overturning the approval of recreational marijuana sales, 58 percent to 42 percent. (Source) Maybe that will end the reefer madness…

You can see the unofficial results from Cascade County by clicking HERE.

I’ll discuss the primary election more Friday.

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE SAM GRAVES:

U.S. Representative Sam Graves (R-MO) represents the area where I was born in Missouri. He has been in that seat since 2001 and, frankly, has done nothing except use Republican talking points to get reelected. If you asked anyone in the Sixth District to name a bill he sponsored that passed, they would probably come up empty.

I understand that the Sixth District is very conservative, but why not elect a conservative who will do some work?

I follow Graves on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with the happenings. Today he was using the Republican talking points about the high gas prices saying the following:

The average price for a gallon of gas in America is now $4.91.
The average price when President Biden took office? Just $2.39
In less than a year and a half, the price of gas has DOUBLED—thanks to the President’s war on American energy.
Americans have had enough of this Green New Deal nonsense.
We need an all-the-above American energy strategy to get gas prices under control.
The President needs to step up.

I replied with: The average price per gallon when you took office in 2001 was $1.42. See how the game is played…😂

Some locally elected officials who have no idea about gas prices (or much of anything else) are determined to blame Biden.

Kiplinger, which is a publisher of business forecasts and personal finance advice, spells out the reasons for the high gas prices in simple terms that even a commissioner or do-nothing U.S. Representative could understand:

First, they report that “No single person, company or even government controls gas prices. Instead, there are several reasons why Americans are facing increasing pain when they fill up their vehicles.”

Here are the reasons:

• COVID Crushed Oil Demand … Then Crushed Oil Production
• War in Ukraine Threatens Russian Oil Exports
• U.S. Trying to Move Away From Oil
• Energy Companies Not Rushing to Drill

I’ve been involved in politics long enough to realize that how voters feel at the polls is connected to their pocketbooks. It is a long way to November and a lot longer to November 2024.

Read the complete report from Kiplinger HERE.

THE WESTERN WORD POLL:

This week’s poll question asks, “Do you think Congress will pass any gun control legislation this year?” (Background)

Thanks for participating.

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