Happy Monday! Here are the topics for today’s commentary:

• Cascade County Elections
• Cascade Republicans PAC
• Montana GOP Civil War
• Border Bill
• One More Thing

CASCADE COUNTY ELECTIONS:

The Electric is reporting that Cascade County Commissioners are scheduled to conduct interviews for the election administrator position on Feb. 6. That is Tuesday (Tomorrow). The Electric says that there are four candidates for the election administrator position: Lynn DeRoche, Nancy Donovan, Rina Fontana Moore, and Terry Thompson.

According to The Electric, Commissioners will open their meeting at 8:45 a.m. and then blocked out 90 minutes per interview, though they may take less time, according to their agenda. Interviews are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Commissioners will conduct interview in the tax appeal room and the public will not be permitted in the room, but the interviews will be broadcast via Zoom, according to the agenda.

More information about the meeting, including ZOOM information, can be found HERE.

In my opinion, there are only two qualified candidates for the job, Rina Fontana Moore and Lynn DeRoche. If the county commission wants the job to be conducted correctly, Moore or DeRoche would be the right choice. Picking either would send MAGA bumpkins over the deep end.

You can read The Electric article HERE.

CASCADE REPUBLICANS PAC:

In an email provided to The Western Word, the Election Protection Committee is calling on a local Republican Political Action Committee to retract a recent alert it sent to local Republicans urging them to ”bury” the County Commissioners with emails. They want people to tell the commissioners that two of the applicants for an open position as the county election administrator are not acceptable because they do not have “a favorable standing or approval from Republican organizations”. The two applicants they oppose are Rina Moore, the former Democratic clerk and recorder and one of her former staff, Lynn Deroche.

As I mentioned above, if the commission selects Moore or DeRoche the MAGA folks will go off the deep end. The fact is, they should pick one of them if they want the job done correctly.

MONTANA GOP CIVIL WAR:

The Montana Free Press (MTFP) is reporting that a political consultant with close ties to the family of former President Donald Trump was invited and subsequently uninvited to speak at the Montana GOP’s winter convention next week, he said, an illustration of the tensions that a possible U.S. Senate primary contest between Tim Sheehy and Matt Rosendale are stoking among Montana Republicans.

The Washington Examiner reported that Bruesewitz’s invitation was rescinded. The reason, he told Montana Free Press, was pressure from allies of Matt Rosendale who were upset about social media posts Bruesewitz made criticizing the Republican congressman, who is planning a run for U.S. Senate.

Lee Newspapers is reporting that the rollercoaster ride that is Montana’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate race took more turns this week as party infighting rose to the forefront and a fresh set of ads trying to deter one potential candidate from entering the race hit the airwaves.

It was also reported by Lee Newspapers that on Jan. 28, the Montana Freedom Caucus of the state Legislature sent a letter to the state party Chair Don Kaltschmidt asking him to rescind the invitation of Alex Bruesewitz, a Trump loyalist who has been critical of Rosendale for being slow to endorse the former president’s bid to return to office, to speak at the party’s winter convention this month.

So, we have the divide between the backers of Sheehy and the backers of Rosendale. Even Donald Trump Jr got in on the Montana GOP civil war: “It’s really disappointing to see some Republicans in Montana engage in leftwing cancel culture,” Donald Trump Jr. posted on X, formerly Twitter. “It’s even more disappointing that they would target one of my father’s strongest and most loyal supporters – @alexbruesewitz.”

The Montana Republicans basically have it all, except one seat; the one that Jon Tester occupies. It has taken them years to gain this super majority and they appear willing to have a civil war over which candidate (Sheehy or Rosendale) will lose to Jon Tester.

You can read the MTFP article HERE. You can read the Lee Newspapers article HERE.

BORDER BILL:

The Associated Press reported that Senators on Sunday released a highly anticipated $118 billion package that pairs border enforcement policy with wartime aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies, but it quickly ran into a wall of opposition from top House Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson.

Wonderful.

The Senate should vote on the bill and if passed, send it to the House. If the House does not like the bill, then work on a compromise. That’s the way it should work.

The AP story can be viewed HERE.

ONE MORE THING:

Did you know that this is a leap year?

## HAVE A GREAT WEEK ##