The Monday Memo

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

  • Dozens of Supporters
  • Sheehy’s Plagiarism
  • Voting Chaos
  • One More Thing

DOZENS OF SUPPORTERS:

KULR 8 in Billings reported that on Sunday afternoon, Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy hosted a rally at a private hangar near the airport in Billings. South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem attended as a special guest.

Apparently, not many supporters showed up.

KULR 8 reported, “Dozens of supporters showed up to hear from Sheehy and Noem.” They did not report about any dogs or goats being harmed by Noem. 

Nonetheless, that’s not a good showing for Sheehy in the state’s largest city. 

You can read the KULR 8 story HERE.

SHEEHY’S PLAGIARISM: 

The Daily Montanan reported Friday afternoon that parts of Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy’s book “seems to have at least four different passages that were plagiarized — sourced, but not credited in the book, according to an investigation by the Daily Montanan.”

When U.S. Senator John Walsh (D-MT) was caught after plagiarizing a paper at the Army War College he dropped out of the race for U.S. Senate. The honorable thing for Sheehy to do would be to drop out of the U.S. Senate race.  Sheehy lacks the honor and integrity to do the right thing. 

There seems to be a different scandal every week with Sheehy. He won’t come clean and answer questions about it. They need to put a sign on his website telling visitors it has been XX many days since the last scandal.

We’ve heard about the gunshot wound, the parachuting, where he grew up, and how he feels about Native Americans, to name a few.  

You can read the whole article from the Daily Montanan HERE. 

VOTING CHAOS:

The Daily Mail picked up the story from the Daily Inter Lake about a problem with Montana’s electronic voting system. The problem was Kamala Harris was left off the electronic ballot. 

The headline on the DailyMail.com website was embarrassing for Montana:

“Voting chaos as state is forced to shut down electronic polling system after major candidate was left off”

This mistake does not make voters feel very secure about voting. The other troubling part of the story is that I do not see any direct quotes about the error from the Montana Secretary of State Christi Jacobsen, just comments from her office. She should have been open to questions. This is a big deal. 

Read the articles from the Daily Inter Lake HERE and from the Daily Mail HERE. 

ONE MORE THING:

Actually, there are two things! There are TWO Monday Night Football games tonight. 

The first game is Jacksonville at Buffalo. That begins at 5:30 Mountain time. The second game is Washington at Cincinnati. That game begins at 6:15 Mountain time. 

## HAVE A GREAT WEEK ##

21 thoughts on “The Monday Memo”

    • That’s what I normally do, unless I know the candidate personally like I do Swanson. -JmB

  2. From an LTTE in today’s DIL:

    In my opinion, as an attorney who has practiced law for 53 years, Judge Lynch, who was a U.S. magistrate judge for over a decade, including writing hundreds of judicial opinions, wins my vote. Why? The answer can be summed up in one word — experience. 

    Contrast Swanson, who has never worn a black robe, never rendered a judicial decision and who openly criticizes the current members of the Montana Supreme Court with unsupported personal attacks — hardly judicial and certainly without the requisite diplomacy required of a chief justice.

    — Lon Dale, Missoula

    Daily Inter Lake

    I would that, as a lawyer, Mr. Dale has some ready examples of his assertion. (my bolding)

    • Thank you.
      I agree with the “never wore a black robe and never rendered a judicial decision” parts, but I’ve never seen any “personal attacks” from Swanson regarding current members of the court.
      Lynch is 73. We need some younger justices. -JmB

      • I disagree. If they were competing for the mile, I would say yes, he’s too old. But he’ll be sitting on the bench weighing arguments, not dumbbells. He’s my age, and fortunately I’ve lost a little physicality but not my mind. Lynch too is still sharp as a tack. Age does not mean what it used to.Lynch, who is from Butte, knows full well what the state was like when Anaconda Copper controlled EVERYTHING in the state. When paper bags full of money were handed out like Halloween candy quite literally in the open, and legislators would ask each other if the had gotten theirs yet. When every newspaper in the state was owned by the company. When passing legislation was simply a formality based upon deals already made in bars and back rooms and board rooms. There was literally no democracy.

        When Montanans had finally had enough, they held the Constitutional Convention and finally brought some fairness to the process. It was a true miracle, but somehow they pulled it off. And we have enjoyed the results ever since. It is considered to be one of the greatest constitutions in the world and is used by many emerging democracies as a blueprint for their own constitutions.

        Lynch LIVED this! Swanson at his age can have no concept of what it was like to live without this amazing document that affects our lives daily. Therefore, it’s easy for him and his MAGA cohorts to take pot shots at our sacred document and criticize our judges. But they don’t have the right to do so. They offer nothing that would improve our government. Fascist ideals would not be an improvement. That would basically return us to the Copper Collar days. The knowledge and experience that Lynch has you don’t get out of a book, or by being an outta stater. Ya gotta be born into it.

        That’s why I’m voting for Lynch at this critical time when MAGA is on the ascendancy. The lunatics in the legislature and AG office must be constrained until such a time as we return to normal. Then I’ll take a look at Swanson. I like what I see about him so far, but he needs to get some Con Con chops! Stop pandering to the MAGAs and show true democratic independence and Montana spirit. Learn to truly appreciate our history. Sucking up MAGA bucks hardly qualifies one for a black robe. Might as well just ask for a paper bag!

        And for God’s sake, NEVER flatter yourself with an endorsement from the likes of the most unconstitutional group around, Slaughter and the constistupidest sheriffs ass.! They’re laughable. Whenever you consider yourself above the Constitution, you know that dribbling your oatmeal ain’t far behind!

  3. Remember those oppo ads of Sheehy saying he wants to return to pure privatization of healthcare? He has a new radio ad out that essentially promises what ACA (Obamacare) already does.

    Tim Sheehy is a flip-flopper.

    Quelle surprise!

    • He seems to change his views every few days – whatever he feels will get more votes. Since he has no voting record, he can say about anything. – JmB

      • I guess his crowds weren’t exactly massive that came out to meet his new best friend, Kristi Noem. I find it remarkable that he would even invite that sicko here. Everybody in Montana loves dogs. If you drive around Great Falls, you’ll see a dog head hanging out of about every third car window. And I don’t care what your politics are, you shoot a puppy in the face you’re persona non grata in these parts.

        What the hell is wrong with Shady? Even after a short time in Montana he should have been able to understand that there’s no puppy killing constituency in Montana! Our heritage is working dogs as our partners and equals. A necessary part of our culture and way of life. Heck, we erect statues to our dogs.

        And that morphed into our love of dogs even for us city folks. Forever now Timmy will be known by his Native name which by virtue of my wife’s Native ancestors I bestow on him. Dances With Puppy Killer While Insulting Us. And that’s probably better than the other name I had in mind. Dumbazz Who Shoots Self!

  4. I’ll take your word for that. He implies in his interview though, that our current Supreme Court is somehow not impartial and fair. I find that to be offensive. And basically a MAGA sentiment. Perhaps I’m misinterpreting his words, but when he says that “they” tell him daily that’s the case, who is they? And why would he listen to them?

    I trust our SC much more than our constitutionalist sheriffs who have well displayed their contempt for the Constitution. Their letter indicates that they’re now attempting to influence the electorate with their positions of authority to vote for their preferred choice. I find that unacceptable. Slaughter has publicly declared himself to be a constitutionalist. This disqualifies his opinion on judicial matters. A judge must adhere to the Constitution and the rule of law, not to the legislature’s demands or those of wacky sheriffs. It’s not a cop’s role to determine sentencing.

    On abortion, Swanson hedges. I think he’s wrong. It’s not complicated, and all doctors agree. Keep the courts and politicians out of private medical decisions. There is no “fact finding” process. It’s called privacy. Either you agree with the right to privacy or you don’t as stated in the state Constitution. And the initiative itself leaves no room for interpretation or meddling by nosey MAGAs.

    “Swanson emphasized that if legislative initiatives pass, it would require a detailed and cautious approach to legal interpretation.”

    “If the initiative passes, there are a variety of new issues that are going to have to be explored in some way. The Supreme Court shouldn’t be doing that on its own. We’re not doctors, we’re not experts. So, somewhere along the way, there’s going to be a fact-finding process,” Swanson said.

    I could be wrong, but me personally I would reject an endorsement by lawless cops who think they are above the law and a law unto themselves, especially if I were running for the highest court of the land! Oh I forgot. The constitutionalist sheriffs derive their authority from the seventeenth century sheriffs of England. My bad!

    https://www.montanarightnow.com/elections/montana-political-show/montana-supreme-court-candidate-cory-swanson-outlines-vision-for-fair-and-impartial-judiciary/article_34ffa8b2-7857-11ef-8a11-8750708ea4c9.html

    • It’s important for voters to check out the information about the judges including the groups who support the judge. -JmB

      • For checking out information, the COPP website has a list of who is contributing what money to whom.

        For Jeremiah Lynch, the contributions seem mostly to come from individuals.

        For Swanson, there are also a lot of individual contributions, including from the likes of Greg and Susan Gianforte, Kristen Juras, Republican operative Chuck Denowh, R candidate Melissa Nikolakakos, far right senator Tom McGillvray, Al Olzewski, Keith and Amy Regier, Steve Fitzpatrick, local MAGA Keith Duncan, Wendy McKamey, the entire Galt family, and many other recognizable Republican and far right players.

        Plus Swanson also has a lot of committee type contributions from PACs, like an oil and gas PAC, a private landowner PAC that champions limiting public access (Chuck Denowh, treasurer), the Austin Knudsen chaired MAGA extremist “Leadership in Action” PAC, as well as others that promote specific business interests. Expenses also reflect fundraisers held with Republican committees, and some strange in-kind expenses/loans with PSC commissioner James Brown who was also a central figure in the WTP campaign finance scandal and current candidate for something or other for odd things like Pachyderm Club.

        One can pretty much surmise that with all these right wing names/politicians and organizations contributing the money to Swanson and him accepting such blatant partisan support, they expect votes or rulings that will go their way. The “right” way. Like meaning all those recent laws Gianforte signed that have been found blatantly unconstitutional probably won’t be found that way any more, our cherished public access laws like stream access could disappear, and other constitutional protections like those deriving from the privacy provision could be curtailed.

        https://cers-ext.mt.gov/CampaignTracker/public/search

      • Swanson has said he was a conservative from the beginning on his campaign literature. It’s no surprise that conservatives and groups would donate to him. That’s the way the game is played.
        It does not necessarily mean he will render decisions they support just as donating to a Senator will get your bill passed. -JmB

      • Correct. I’ve already made my decision, so I will stay home, but these forums are great for the undecided to attend. -JmB

    • Jacobsen should have held a press conference, taken questions, and quelled the concerns. That would have been what a leader would have done. – JmB

  6. While doing a little research on our Supreme Court judge races, I happened upon this pathetic letter endorsing an obvious MAGA candidate. Naturally our “constitutionalist” sheriff Jesse was one of the authors. These little fascist wannabe tin horns now feel embolden to insert themselves in the judicial process. They’re getting way too big for their britches. They’re way outta line.

    Our judicial system in Montana is just fine. We don’t need the trump posse attacking them as not being fair and impartial. I would submit that if they want to improve public trust, they work on their own on image first! There are countless examples out there of cops needlessly killing unarmed citizens and violating their rights. Start there, Jesse. Build up the public trust in cop land before you deign to consider yourselves qualified to criticize our judiciary! BTW, a constitutionalist sheriff is anything but a follower of the law. They’re kooks. We don’t need any constitutionalist kook judges too!

    https://flatheadbeacon.com/2024/06/24/sheriffs-support-cory-swanson-for-chief-justice/

    • Larry -I have known Cory Swanson for about 20 years. He will get my vote. He is an honest and hardworking man and I think he will be fair as a judge. He’s a conservative but I’ve never heard him side with the MAGA crowd, so saying he is an “obvious” MAGA candidate is a stretch.
      In the other race, I like Katherine Bidegaray. Being an independent allows me to do things like this. -JmB

      • For me personally, Swanson’s lack of any judicial experience is disqualifying. As is his previous association with an anti-public lands lobbying/legal practice. Not to mention the blatant partisanship from supporters like Matthew Montforton and the state Republican party, which has been inundating us with some pretty nasty anti-Lynch and anti-Bidegaray smear campaign flyers. If the state Republicans are going at it this hard, they certainly have some specific future rulings in mind.

        Good article from earlier this year about the two chief justice candidates.

        https://montanafreepress.org/2023/12/14/the-politics-and-philosophy-behind-the-race-for-chief-justice-of-the-montana-supreme-court/

      • All judges begin their duties with no judicial experience. Swanson is one of the most intelligent people I’ve met. He will succeed if elected.
        As for the third party hit pieces, as you know they cannot coordinate these pieces with the candidate.
        I have not seen his campaign attack the other candidate, but I’m kind of tuning out the commercials these days. I did see the other campaign attack him.
        Thanks for your input. – JmB

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