Greetings! Here are the topics for today’s commentary:

• Primary Election Wrap
  • Cascade County Counting
  • Wittich Committeman
  • Forstag Wins
  • Bankhead won’t quit
  • Jones, Nikolakakos, Buttrey
• Important Announcement
• One More Thing

PRIMARY ELECTION WRAP:

Here are some final thoughts about the Montana Primary Election. 

Cascade County Counting…

It always amazes me that, when the votes are being counted, the Cascade County Elections office takes forever to release its totals.

All night Tuesday, Cascade County was shown to have only partial results from its precincts, while other counties, large and small, were finished. Around 10:30 a.m., Wednesday, the Montana Secretary of State’s website showed that Cascade County precincts (26 of 26) were finally fully reporting. 

They should do better. If not, find someone who can. 

Wittich Committeman…

I happened to see that Montana Republican Party Chairman Art Wittich lost his bid to be a committeeman in Gallatin County. The vote was 79%-29%. Ouch! (Source)

Forstag Wins…

As I reported last night, Sam Forstag trailed Ryan Busse most of the night in the Democratic primary in MT-01. Forstag kept chipping away at Busse’s lead and was declared the winner at 11:22 a.m. Wednesday by the Associated Press. Forstag leads Busse by about 2,900 votes. 

Forstag will take on Republican Aaron Flint and Libertarian Nick Sheedy in November. As I said last night, Flint had an impressive victory in a four-way race. Flint received 50% of the vote. 

Bankhead won’t quit…

Democrat Alani Bankhead surprised a lot of people when she won the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate with 44% of the vote. It was a five-person primary. 

There were rumors that if Bankhead won, she would drop out and make room for independent candidate Seth Bodnar to go one-on-one against Republican Kurt Alme. 

On her Facebook page on Wednesday, Bankhead posted that she was not dropping out of the race. (Source)

I think Alme will have a lot of work to do to win. He’s boring. Bankhead and Bodnar have more charisma. 

Jones, Nikolakakos, Buttrey…

The MAGA Republican tried to destroy a few fellow Republicans. 

Llew Jones was a top target, and he won his race 52%-48% in SD-9.  

George Nikolakakos was also a top target, but he destroyed MAGA Republican Randy Pinocci 68%-32% in SD-12. By the way, George Nikolakakos’ wife, Melissa, easily won her race in HD-20. So it was kind of the double whammy against the MAGAs.  

I am shaking my head in disbelief that Ed Buttrey lost his race to MAGA Republican Steven Galloway. Buttrey is an excellent legislator. He will be missed in the legislature. 

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:

I am taking a much-needed road trip, so I won’t be posting for a while. I hope I won’t have to rob a bank to pay for gas! 

I don’t know when I will return, but I will be posting on X (@TheWesternWord) and The Western Word Facebook page.

I will return rested and ready to give you my common-sense opinion about the issues that affect us all.  

ONE MORE THING:

When a cougar gets so old that she needs a hearing aid, she becomes a Def Leppard…

## BE NICE TODAY ##