Thanks for ending your week with The Western Word! Here are the topics for today’s independent commentary:
- New U.S. Senate Poll
- No Kings: Vote Early
- Trump in Montana
- One More Thing
NEW U.S. SENATE POLL:
The Seth Bodnar campaign just dropped a new poll that’s turning heads—and shaking up the race.
A new poll from Concord Public Opinion Partners shows former U.S. Army Green Beret and Independent candidate Seth Bodnar leading Republican Kurt Alme in Montana’s U.S. Senate race, 37 percent to 35 percent, with Democrat Alani Bankhead at 13 percent and Libertarian Kyle Austin at 1 percent. Thirteen percent of voters are undecided.
Of course, you have to be skeptical of numbers put out by the campaigns themselves.
The same poll shows that President Donald J. Trump has an unfavorable rating of 58% in Montana. I can’t imagine having him campaign for me in Montana with those terrible numbers. Alme has an unfavorable rating of 48%.
NO KINGS: VOTE EARLY
There are several events planned in Montana this Saturday (Oct. 17)!
Families across the country are struggling to afford groceries, gas, electric bills, and the everyday cost of getting by. The decisions made by those in power shape our lives, our communities, and our future.
No Kings: Vote Early is the next step in reclaiming our power after a year of mass mobilizations.
It’s a day of nonpartisan voter participation, being in community with each other, and making sure every eligible voter has a plan, knows their options, and is ready to make their voice count.
Click HERE to visit the No Kings website and to find an event close to you.
TRUMP IN MONTANA:
There were several promises made by President Donald Trump during his stop in Kalispell Wednesday night. Yawn.
One promise that caught my eye was when Trump announced that the Pentagon will establish a new advanced weapons testing “super range” in Montana, stating that the state will help ensure the U.S. military “always reigns supreme.”
That reminded me of the Powder River Training Range that is already in Montana. The PRTC is the largest military air training complex in the continental United States, encompassing roughly 35,000 square miles of airspace across North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming.
Managed primarily by Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, it provides dedicated, low-to-high-altitude airspace used for combat readiness training, Large Force Exercises (LFEs), and supersonic flight maneuvers for strategic bombers like the B-1 and B-52.
When they were trying to expand the PRTC several years ago, all of Montana’s federally elected officials and the Governor came out against the expansion, saying the planes would harm cattle and sheep operations in the state and interfere with operations at local community airports. They cited several other silly reasons. It was approved in early 2015.
I wrote extensively about the PRTC on this blog. You can search for “Powder River Training Complex” in this blog and see why I said numerous times that “Montana’s skies are closed.”
There’s not much information about the “Super Range,” mostly because it is just a campaign promise that will probably be forgotten on November 4. There is supposedly $10 million for a feasibility study. That money could best be used to repair/reopen Malmstrom’s runway.
Trump also repeated a broader campaign promise to pay every adult American $5,000 if Republicans retain control of both houses of Congress.
Watch Trump’s speech in Kalispell HERE.
ONE MORE THING:
I was voted most paranoid back in high school.
It was a secret ballot, and they rigged it against me.
## HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND ##
