Caught My Eye…

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Quote for the Day…

To see what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice. ― Confucius

Caught My Eye (CME) is the once-a-week column posted every Friday morning. This is when I look at some of the stories I did not have time to write about during the week.

Here are a few things that “Caught My Eye” this week:

  • He Needs Our Help
  • Jacobsen’s Frivolous Complaints
  • Gary Buchanan
  • One More Thing

HE NEEDS OUR HELP:

I received an email from the Montana Republican Party with the subject, “He needs our help.”

The person they are referring to who needs help is Ryan Zinke. Zinke is in a tight race against Democrat Monica Tranel.

There are a lot of attacks on Tranel which makes me believe this race is close.

Even the conservative website Breitbart ran a story trying to help Zinke:

Montana congressional Libertarian candidate John Lamb and Democrat candidate Monica Tranel are coordinating their efforts to spoil Republican Ryan Zinke’s comeback campaign in the state’s first congressional district.

Lee Newspapers reported that the Montana Libertarian Party issued a statement on Thursday in response to that story, saying they are being used as the club with which the two major parties are beating each other.

It wouldn’t be the first time that one of the major political parties has helped a third-party candidate. If Tranel wins and Lamb gets a lot of votes, it would not be the first time a third-party candidate took a victory from a Republican.

That’s why Montana should require the winner of an election to get 50% or more of the vote, but that’s a fight for another day.

JACOBSEN’S FRIVOLOUS COMPLAINTS:

The Montana Free Press (MTFP) reports that Commissioner of Political Practices Jeff Mangan dismissed a trio of complaints filed last week by Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen against three Montana-based nonprofits that recently won a lawsuit against her office. In each decision, Mangan determined that Jacobsen’s allegations were “frivolous” and “unsupported by evidence.”

Upper Seven Law sent a press release to The Western Word that, in part, stated:

“The Secretary of State should be focused on the election, not retaliating against nonprofits in Montana who are helping her do her job by promoting the right to vote,” said Rylee Sommers-Flanagan, who represents the Forward Montana Foundation and MontPIRG. “As the Commissioner recognized, these Complaints were completely frivolous and a waste of taxpayer resources.”

I’ve lost a lot of confidence in the Montana Secretary of State’s office in the last few years. It seems that this office is the leader in making sure people they don’t like have a hard time voting.

Read the story from MTFP HERE.

GARY BUCHANAN:

A lot of Republicans are sick of the MAGA folks like Matt Rosendale embarrassing our state and country.

I have never voted for Rosendale, and I never will. I will be casting my vote for Independent Gary Buchanan.

I recently received a flier from his campaign that was very well done. It deals with privacy and freedom.

Check out the front HERE and the back HERE.

Please join me in voting for Gary Buchanan.

ONE MORE THING:

If my count is correct, I have received about 64 pieces of campaign literature this campaign season as of Thursday.

I feel a lot of love.

The Montana Conservation Voters Action Fund sent a flier promoting Justice Ingrid Gustafson and saying James Brown can’t be trusted to protect our right to access public lands.

See the front HERE and the back HERE.

I will be voting for Gustafson. You should, too.

## HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ##

9 thoughts on “Caught My Eye…”

  1. I understand the rationale for requiring a candidate to have an actual majority (over 50% of votes cast). That tends to gloss over the reality that, depending on the office and the candidates, there might well be a significant number of votes cast AGAINST a particular candidate by people who can’t stomach a person like Zinke in office.

    • I will be surprised if the winner gets 50% of the votes in either congressional race. Thanks, JmB

  3. One more item (that has nothig to do with today’s topics):

    The Great Falls City Manager and Commission have decided they want to tax us some more with yet another public safety levy, next year. To that end they propose to put out a RFP to spend taxpayer money for a PR firm or whatever to gather up and/or create supporting information for exactly how this would make us safer and why we need all sorts of additional employees on the public payroll, all details that the Crime Task Force was tasked to gather but failed to deliver. Creation of a strategy to “educate” the public and messaging for City officials to sell this tax increase is the main thrust of the RFP.

    The commission will consider this RFP in their work session this coming Tuesday Nov 1. Written public comments are due by noon on Tuesday, or people can show up in person to comment. Or, if you happen to own a PR firm, heads up.

    Agenda and packet available here:

    https://greatfallsmt.net/citycommission/work-session-meeting-november-1-2022

    • Terry – Thanks for the heads up.
      I can’t support any public safety levy. I might support a levy for the local library because GF is full of MAGA dumbasses who need their horizons expanded. 😎
      -JmB

      • I will never vote for a levy that Jesse Slaughter had a hand in developing. A vote for his levy would be a tacit endorsement of his anti-government anti-Democratic ideals. If he’s having trouble retaining employees, maybe the county commissioners should investigate if it’s because no one in their right mind wants to work for a “constitutionalist” sheriff.

        And now they’re applying that word to every MAGA running for office. It’s become code for MAGA. I see James Brown is using it his commercials. I think even Zinke uses it as a fig leaf, albeit one too small, to cover up his past criminal indictments.

        Folks need to become informed as to what this movement portends.

        https://www.npr.org/2022/10/22/1130755532/inside-the-constitutional-sheriff-movement

  4. I read through all the information about Jacobsen’s dismissed complaint against the ACLU (which had already been informally resolved). The laziness, sloppiness, and dishonesty it reveals about the SOS office is shocking. Zero hard evidence, misinformation based on voter hearsay, and dishonest claims about the ACLU submitted as a formal complaint, when the SOS office already knew there was no merit.

    The entire effort appears to have been nothing more than blatant politicization of the complaint process to put “complaint about the ACLU” into the public eye right before the election, much like the phony Republican complaint against Gustafson.

    • More and more it seems anything goes in our elections. We need tougher rules that hold those who cheat accountable. -JmB

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