| SD2 Brittany MacLean
Flathead county. Pits Democrat Brittany MacLean against Republican Ryan Zinke.
MacLean is a widow and a mother of four, who won somewhat of an upset in the primary. According to a Mike Dennison report, MacLean attributes her success in the primary to her work on the doors and talking with voters face-to-face. According to the Flathead Beacon, "MacLean holds a degree in nonprofit management from New York's New School, and has established family health centers in Alaska. She is focused on preventive healthcare policy, and is interested in legislation, modeled after a California program, that would make it easier for workers to get paid leave to care for sick family members."
Zinke is the GOP's golden boy. He's a football star turned war hero - a Navy SEAL awarded two Bronze Stars for his action in Iraq. He's running as a self-proclaimed "Teddy Roosevelt Republican," which to him means cutting taxes for business, not protecting ordinary citizens from big conglomerations. In his Project VoteSmart issues page, he paints himself as a moderate who's in favor of the current spending and taxation status quo, although he does support greatly increasing teacher salaries. His stance on environmental issues is also moderate.
Where he veers rightward is in his stance towards disability and unemployment insurance - which he promises to "reform" - and on health insurance - where he prefers the status quo of private insurers, and where he wants government out of, altogether. (No CHIP?)
(On a side note, his home page misattributes a quote to Abraham Lincoln - "You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich," etc & co. It's actually the product of William JH Boetcker, a 20th-century conservative. This misquote - along with the distortion of Rooselvelt's legacy - leads me to suspect Zinke's getting his info from throwaway conservative websites, which patently misstate Lincoln and Roosevelt's records to make them resemble contemporary big-business Republicans. This kind of carelessness is not a good omen for a guy who wants to serve his state, IMHO.)
Incumbent Democrat, Dan Weinberg, declined to run again and left this seat wide open. He won the seat in 2004 by a close margin - 67 votes. The primary election numbers were close - Zinke outpolled the two Democratic candidates, but Democrats pulled more voters by a few hundred.
This should be a hum-dinger of a race, with two very different candidates going head-to-head. A widow against a football star, war-hero? I guess we'll find out if voters' need for health care outweighs getting star struck...
SD16 Shirley Baumgartner
Daniels, Phillips, Richland, Roosevelt, Sheridan, and Valley counties. Pits Democrat Shirley Baumgartner against Republican John Brendan.
Baumgartner is a long-time pharmacy owner in Glasgow; She's running primarily on education and health care issues. (Information on Baumgartner is slim.)
Brenden is a farmer, businessman, and real estate investor, and former state party chair. He's the usual big-business Republican, advocating "smart" use of taxpayer dollars and an "advocate of private property rights." He's got a long history in Republican politicking.
This is the battle for Sam Kitzenberg's seat - the Senator who was chased away from the Republican party by heavy-handed conservative primary tactics. It "leans" Republican, although it's wise to note that Kitzenberg never won his seat as a Democrat. However, note the Democratic turnout for this district in the primary; the two Democrats outpolled the unopposed Brenden by 600 votes.
New links:
Baumgartner's MySpace page.
SD21 Sharon Stewart-Peregoy
Big Horn, Powder River, Rosebud, and Yellowstone counties. Pits Democrat Sharon Stewart-Peregoy against Republican Randen Schoppe.
Stewart-Peregoy, a first-time political candidate, is a registered member of the Crow tribe, a "bilingual educator" and "advocate for the revitalization of the Crow language and culture." She works for the Crow Tribe in the Economic Development Office, and works with the Crow Agency Horizons Project to reduce poverty in rural communities.
Randen Schoppe is a 26-year-old defense attorney and product of the (ugh) College Republicans. He's running to "increase economic growth in the area" and wants to cut taxes. From Hardin, he's concerned about the jail that no one wants. Schoppe's the usual tax-cutting, anti-environment, deregulation of business, private-school-voucher lovin' conservative.
In the primary, Stewart-Peregoy outpolled Schoppe by nearly 2-to-1 - and that was while running in a competitive four-way race. Overall, Democrats outpolled the Republican candidate, 3,270-546.
So...why is this race considered a battleground race? Largely because the district spans two reservations - the Crow and Cheyenne. Stewart-Peregoy defeated Norma Bixby, the Cheyenne House Representative and race favorite. Will centuries of rivalry between the two nations trump contemporary politics? If so, and turnout among the Cheyenne is low, the seat could fall to Schoppe.
SD 26 Lynda Moss
Yellowstone county. Pits incumbent Democrat Lynda Moss against Republican Max Graham.
Moss is the executive director of Foundation for Community Vitality, a nonprofit organization that offers assistance to programs or people that enhance the sustainable vitality of Montana communities. (Think conservation, Native American culture, education, and economic development, say.) Moss is also a board member of the Billings Housing Authority, Abseroke-Beartooth Wilderness Foundation, and Holter Museum of Art. Moss is an advocate for education, pro-choice, favors progressive taxation, is a proponent of alternative energy, and who used her time in the legislature to work for children, preservationists, nonprofits, and affordable housing.
In short, she's completely kick *ss.
Graham is a member of the Billings CoC, and is a benefit planning producer for Western States Insurance Agency. One assumes he's your garden variety big-business conservative the state party loves so. And apparently he's raking in donations.
Moss has already been the target of sleazy child porn Republican mailers, in which she was attacked for siding with the Department of Corrections on preventative treatment for child sex abusers. So you know this one is going to be ugly. She won the seat in 2004 by only 61 votes, although in the 2008 primary she outpolled Graham 2,453-789. Still, the state GOP is targeting this seat and will obviously stoop to the lowest levels to get it, even if means misconstruing the legislative record in the worst possible way of a woman who's dedicated most of her adult life to her community to do it.
HD1 Eileen Carney
Lincoln county. Pits Democrat Eileen Carney against Republican Gerald Bennett.
Carney is a former legislator in Lincoln; a resident of Libby, and its Community Advisory Group representative in the ongoing cleanup of asbestos. Bennett is a business owner who wants to cut taxes for business, harvest coal, wants to privatize student loans, and thinks the last legislative impasse was just dandy.
While the CoC says that the past two races have been close, Carney was outpolled by her opponent in the primary, although Carney was unopposed, and Bennett involved in a four-way race. Lincoln county was also one of the few areas of the state where Republican primary voters outnumbered Democratic. (Although they went for Green/Progressive/Parliamentarian Bob Kelleher in a big way.)
New links:
Carney's campaign website.
HD8 Cheryl Steenson
Flathead county. Pits Democrat Cheryl Steenson against Republican Craig Witte.
Steenson is a 27-year-old adjunct English professor at Flathead Valley Community College. According to the Flathead Beacon, she grew up in the Flathead in a "right-leaning family." Her grandfather - a "dyed-in-the-wool Republican," is her treasurer. She's running on a platform of affordable health care, fully funded public education, and an equitable tax system.
Witte, the incumbent, is a Kalispell restaurant owner who won his seat by 37 votes in 2006. Witte was an eager participant in last session's acrimony; he's also an outspoken climate-change denier. No bill he sponsored made it out of committee.
The Democratic primary combatants - Steenson and John de Neeve - together outpolled Witte by more than 300 votes.
HD20 Deb Kottel
Cascade county. Pits Democrat Deb Kottel against Republican Jack Allen.
Kottel is the incumbent, sits on the judiciary and transportation committees, and served as an advocate for nonprofits, consumers, and social workers. She has a long history of organizing against poverty. Allen is a Great Falls policeman, is a pro-choice, pro-corporate conservative who wants slash corporate taxes and regulation, and is a proponent of Great Fall's coal-fired plant
Kottel won her last race by only 89 votes, and the Helena IR reports that GOP officials think Allen can give her a "good race." Still, Cascade county is Democrat-friendly, and Kottel outpolled Allen 1,382 to 545 in the primary. Oh, and Constitution Party candidate Terry Poupa should poach votes on the right.
New links:
Great Falls Tribune, September 9, 2008: "Forum focuses on state's legal system."
HD63 JP Pomnichowski
Gallatin county. Pits incumbent Democrat JP Pomnichowski against Republican Thomas Burnett.
I met JP at the state convention, and she is definitely kick-*ss. (Just check out her response to the GOP's infamous death porn mailer during the last session.) She served on the House Natural Resources and Taxation Committees, and sponsored a bunch of legislation, and got several bills passed, no small feat in the Republican-led House. She's a fellow software geek and former local news producer. As for the issues, she's for funding education, general across-the-board tax cuts, she's pro-choice and spousal rights for same-sex couples, she's great on environmental issues and alternative energy...in fact, she's a great progressive legislator.
Burnett's a former small business owner who considers himself a naturalist (influenced by McKibben, Thoreau, and Leopold - and he's a Republican?). He's running to protect the environment and make the state "business friendly" by slashing taxes and deregulating business. (So much for the environment.)
Burnett seems like a nice guy, but a bit overmatched. And given he wants pretty much the same thing Democrats do - though naively thinks handouts to corporations will somehow help to preserve the state's wilderness areas - why not just keep the experienced and competent legislator in Helena?
Still, Burnett's website shouldn't make us cocky. Pomnichowski won this seat by only 35 votes in 2006 (pdf), and the seat's location (which includes Sinrud's former House district!) makes it a biannual swing race. It will eat up a lot of cash. In the primary, however, Pomnichowski outpolled Burnett, 2,100 to 871.
New links:
Gallatin County Democrats: "About Jennifer "JP" Pomnichowski."
Bozeman Daily Chronicle, August 26, 2008: "Democratic convention tales."
Bozeman Daily Chronicle, June 6, 2008: "HD63 candidate criticizes toilet rebate program."
NewWest, May 21, 2008: "Air and Water Quality in the Gallatin Valley in Question?"
HD78 Jill Cohenour
Lewis & Clark county. Pits longtime incumbent Democrat Jill Cohenour against Republican Steve Gibson.
Cohenaur is a chemist for the DHHS, vice chair of the House Taxation Committee, and member of the Natural Resources Committee. She's not terribly popular with the Montana CoC, which is a good thing, and has a strong record on education, labor, and environmental issues. She earned kudos from jhwygirl for her work in the legislature's Water Policy Interim Committee for trying to protect the public's water rights from the incursion of pro-development-minded legislators.
Gibson is the administrator of the Youth Services Division of the Montana Department of Corrections. He's a self-proclaimed independent who's running out of concern for the efficiency of the state bureaucracy. Not much else is known about him.
Cohenour won this seat by only 200 votes in 2006 (pdf); you do have to like the fact that Cohenaur more than doubled her opponent's vote total in the primary in an area of the state more likely to be influenced by the uptick of Obama voters and volunteers.
New links:
Cohenour's campaign website.
Helena IR, September 2, 2008: "Labor Day inside, and dry."
Billings Gazette, August 18, 2008: "Gravel mining pits neighbor against company."
4&20 blackbirds, May 4, 2008: "Developer rights v private property rights - guess (again) whose trumps whose." |
