Quote for the Day…
Whoever cares to learn will always find a teacher. -German Proverb
In today’s column, I take a quick look at these people/issues:
- The Illegal October Surprise?
- More Political Hit Pieces
- Student Debt Cancellation Program
THE ILLEGAL OCTOBER SURPRISE?
Yesterday I mentioned complaints filed against Montana Supreme Court Justice Ingrid Gustafson. I said, “Of course, the folks filing these complaints are MAGA kooks and Republican insiders who are hoping to elect a full-blown Republican to the State Supreme Court.”
Apparently, the MAGA kooks and Republican insiders violated the Judicial Standards Commission’s confidentiality rules, according to Gustafson’s campaign and reported by the Montana Free Press (MTFP).
The MTFP is reporting:
Jake Eaton, a longtime Republican political consultant and treasurer of the conservative political action committee Montana for Judicial Accountability Initiative, sent copies of the two complaints he filed with the Judicial Standards Commission to members of the media on Friday, the same day election administrators began mailing ballots to absentee voters.
The Montana Republicans must have the feeling they are going to lose this race and therefore are cheating and lying in an attempt to win.
The MTFP also reported:
Procedures governing the five-member Judicial Standards Commission specify that “all papers filed herewith and all proceedings before the Commission shall be confidential while pending before the Commission.” Violation of that confidentiality, the rules say, “may result in summary dismissal of the complaint.”
The Commission should shitcan Eaton’s complaint.
Read the complete report from MTFP HERE.
MORE POLITICAL HIT PIECES:
As I said last week, you can almost set your clocks to it. Days before the absentee ballots hit the mailbox, the political hit pieces from the various groups start arriving.
Over the weekend I received several fliers, and I also received my ballot in the mail.
On Monday I received several fliers, including one from the Montana Republican State Central Committee, promoting “Conservative” James Brown for Montana Supreme Court. The only thing the flier tells me about Brown is that he is endorsed by Governor Greg Gianforte, United States Senator Steve Daines, and Attorney General Austin Knudsen.
On the reverse side, the Montana Republican State Central Committee goes after Justice Ingrid Gustafson calling her a “Liberal Activist” and that her “Radical Agenda is hurting Montana families and small businesses. They also contend that she received an “F” rating from the Montana Chamber of Commerce. The Montana Chamber of Commerce leans to the right.
You can view the flier HERE and HERE.
One thing we all should remember about James Brown is that our Northwestern energy bill is going to significantly increase because the Public Service Commission, of which he is chair, voted to allow the increases to happen,
Please join me in voting for Ingrid Gustafson for the Montana Supreme Court.
STUDENT DEBT CANCELLATION PROGRAM:
The Associated Press is reporting that President Joe Biden on Monday officially kicked off the application process for his student debt cancellation program and announced that 8 million borrowers had already applied for loan relief during the federal government’s soft launch period over the weekend.
You can visit the website HERE.
Good luck!
The Western Word 
The same type of organizations Brown represents. Guess this is what we have to look forward to. We don’t need his pals here!
https://crooksandliars.com/2022/10/dark-money-republicans-are-swamping
As senator Tester said at a town hall, VOTE. Inform yourself, pay attention, and VOTE. In Montana, the choice is pretty obvious
So to summarize the ethics complaint situation:
– A Republican political hack who lost an appeal that was before the state supreme court filed two ethics complaints ostensibly arising from that case, against just one of the justices who dismissed his appeal, months later, coincidentally just as ballots are being mailed out
– This same Republican political hack just happens to be working for the “non-partisan” campaign of the sitting judge’s opponent
– Then both the Republican political hack and the state Republican party improperly publicized these ethics complaints, the same complaints they themselves just filed, before the complaints were ever even reviewed for merit.
And we are expected to take these complaints seriously.
Welcome to Gianforte’s Montana, where his party and cronies have blatantly thrown the concept of an impartial judiciary out the window, will abandon any norm, and ignore any law in their quest to install partisan puppets of the corporations and millionaires.
Nicely stated. Thanks, JmB