In thinking about the 2008 race for Montana’s Governor, there’s a heck of a lot I could write about. I’ll try to keep it relatively short.

I’ve been no fan of Brian Schweitzer since the day he appeared on the public’s radar screen in 1999. That’s when he used senior citizens as campaign tools, busing them to Canada for their prescription drugs. He was running for U.S. Senate. He lost to Conrad Burns.

Schweitzer loves stunts. He loves attention. Schweitzer reminds me of the salesman on TV named Billy Mays. Billy sells everything from health insurance to mighty putty, and so does Schweitzer.

We discovered this year that Schweitzer had broken the state law that said candidates could not do public service announcements after they file for office.

That was strike one. He had signed the bill into law. He should have known better.

After losing to Burns in 2000, he was left with such a bad taste in his mouth, that Schweitzer publicly bragged about turning some dials (tampered with the election) to help his good friend, Jon Tester defeat Conrad Burns in 2006.

That was strike two. Voting is a sacred right we have in this country. Standing up in front of folks making fun of the state you represent, and telling them you turned some dials to help your friend win was classless.

It might have even been criminal, but we’ll never know the facts because the Democrat holding the Montana Attorney General’s seat would not investigate Schweitzer.

That was strike three. Besides retiring him to the bench, I would thrown him out of the game, much like Mike Singletary did to his player after the player committed a personal foul on Sunday.

Folks may be enamored with Schweitzer, but as I have told many folks, there’s more to his story than just a folksy, back-slapping fellow with a dog.

If Schweitzer is allowed to continue for the next four years, it’s hard telling what we may find and what he may do. With the amount of out-of-state money Schweitzer has taken, we can see that Montana is not in the forefront. The top four cities he’s received money from are New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco. He’s also taken a big chunk in donations from lobbyists. Although he swears he takes no Political Action Committee (PAC) money, it’s very easy for members of a PAC to write personal checks directly to his campaign.

On the other side, Roy Brown is calm and cool. He is a statesman. We wouldn’t see Brown make speeches about tampering with elections. We wouldn’t see Brown use state funds and personnel to do illegal public service announcements. We wouldn’t see Brown bully people.

Roy Brown has called Schweitzer a bully and says that Schweitzer takes credit for everything, including the sunrise. I believe on both counts Schweitzer is guilty.

One of the more interesting things that was done during this campaign was the creation of a website called, “Brian the Bully.” You can read some of Schweitzer’s bullying tactics HERE. People seem to be afraid of publicly going against the Governor because of the payback they may suffer. There’s no need to live in fear, you can vote him out folks.

When you are taking on an incumbent, you have a tough road to travel. This is the task of Roy Brown. I agree with Brown’s view of keeping spending under control, tax breaks, and I believe we will see more energy development if he is the Governor. The final answer to our energy problems is not just blowing in the wind. We need more energy solutions. If Roy Brown is elected, I think we’ll catch up with Wyoming and the Dakotas on energy development. That would help our economy, our schools, our teachers, and lower our taxes. I like that. I like Roy Brown in this election.