Welcome! Here are the topics for today’s column:

• Cascade County Elections
• Important Notice
• NorthWestern Energy

CASCADE COUNTY ELECTIONS:

The circus continues in Cascade County when it comes to elections.

The Daily Montanan is reporting that in what may feel like déjà vu from last year, officials in Cascade County are debating whether to conduct an all-mail-in or hybrid poll election for the May Great Falls Public School District board election. Interim Election Administrator Devereaux Biddick and County Commissioner Rae Grulkowski supported the hybrid poll model, while the other commissioners said the county should honor the school district’s request for a mail-in election, with no poll availability, during a special meeting Tuesday. Ultimately, the decision was pushed to next week, where commissioners will compare cost estimates for both election methods.

The bottom line is the MAGA nutjobs favor in-person voting and are against mail-in voting.

One of the main points made in the Daily Montanan article is that (Sandra) Merchant, (Rae) Grulkowski, and (Devereaux) Biddick have all been affiliated with election denial circles in Great Falls.

If the Cascade County Commissioners keep Biddick in the position of Elections Administrator, they need to be run out of town.

You can read the Daily Montanan article HERE. The Electric covers the story HERE.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

The folks at More Jobs Less Government sent a flier to Montanans recently saying the Democrats are interfering with the election in Montana. The flier landed in my mailbox Wednesday.

They contend the “Last Best Place PAC” is spending millions of dollars trying to trick Republicans with lies about (Tim) Sheehy. They say it’s part of the plan to protect Jon Tester and stop an America First conservative from facing off against him in November.

I guess the polls show that Tim Sheehy won’t do too well in his primary if the opponent is Matt Rosendale. Voters would probably pick Brad Johson over Sheehy if the truth was known.

In case you missed it, I predicted Tester would win reelection several months ago.

Montana is an open primary state. I like that. In general, but not always, states that do not ask voters to choose parties on the voter registration form are “open primary” states. In an open primary, voters may choose privately in which primary to vote. In other words, voters may choose which party’s ballot to vote, but this decision is private and does not register the voter with that party. This permits a voter to cast a vote across party lines for the primary election. (Source)

Here are photos of the fliers (Right click on image to enlarge in new window):

NORTHWESTERN ENERGY:

In case you missed it, and you won’t when you receive your bill, the NorthWestern Energy rate hike that the Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) adopted in October will stand following a decision from the commission this week. (Source)

The Public Service Commission, all Republicans, unanimously voted to approve an order that largely keeps in place a settlement agreement it greenlighted this fall with Northwestern Energy. That agreement resulted in a rate increase of 24% for residential electricity customers and 25% for small businesses compared to rates in August 2022 — and commissioners didn’t specifically discuss rate changes. (Source)

This is bullshit.

I don’t care how many steak dinners, free donuts, and bottles of Merlot they provide, if I was on the PSC, I would never vote for a rate increase. Never.

The elected officials in Montana must stop raising our taxes, fees, and rates. Someone needs to stand up for Joe & Jill Six-Pack.

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