The 2008 election: the good, bad, and the ugly

by: Jay Stevens

Fri Nov 07, 2008 at 07:19:52 AM MST

Obama. Even though he lost Montana, he won 47.1% of the state's vote, the highest total for a Democratic presidential candidate since LBJ. Not bad for a Harvard-educated, skinny black kid with a funny name, as he himself put it. The base of support is in place for Obama's progressive agenda.

Schweitzer & Baucus. Here's some amusing statistics. Max Baucus' opponent, Bob Kelleher garnered 128,762 votes. Brian Schweitzer's opponent, Roy Brown, won 157,894 votes. Which means Brown's spending several hundred thousand dollars, touring the state over several times, and debating the governor --- what? five times? -- earned him 29,132 more votes than an unrepentant parliamentarian socialist who, essentially, didn't campaign. Not sure what that means, other than Montanans didn't like Brown very much, which was evidenced in his unfavorable ratings throughout the race.

Steve Bullock winning the AG's office. A triumph of ideas, ability, and experience over divisiveness and fear mongering. Tim Fox' campaign manager, Chuck Denowh, probably should consider getting into another line of business.

Denise Juneau winning the Superintendent's job. Particularly awesome. This was probably the clearest choice on the ballot this election. Juneau has the talent and intelligence to really make her tenure as Superintendent something special. My only regret is that my kids won't be enrolled in the Montana school system during her tenure. And has a Native American ever won a statewide seat in Montana before?

Lindeen's win over Grimes for Auditor. Everything I've heard about Grimes was positive, so this race, unlike the AG or Superintendent's race wasn't simply a matter of who was more capable, or who'd be better at the job. Instead it came down to ideology: it seemed like a referendum on regulation of business in general, and a good indicator of how Montanans view health care. In short, the state's voters rejected deregulation, and seemed inclined to support a government-aided approach to health care reform. Good.

Johnson losing his SoS re-election bid. Sure, his heart was in the right place during Eaton's voter suppression folly, but the office always seemed a little greater than the man. Having egregiously botched the 2006 election, he proceeded to blame same-day voter registration and lobbied the legislature to overturn it, despite its popularity with the state's voters. For that alone, he deserved to be kicked out of office. We'll miss those billboards, though.

The PSC. Gail Gutsche's win over Doug Mood was huge. Huge. Sadly, I neglected that race on the blog, but it was one of the more important races in the state. (Then, given the outcome of most of the battleground legislative races, maybe my neglect was a good thing.) John Vincent also won his bid for the PSC, which leaves half-mad Brad Molnar the only Republican on the board. (See "ugly," below.) Now we've got near unanimous consent to plow forward with a smart, green energy agenda. If only...

...the state Senate weren't in Republican hands. It wasn't much of a surprise: the Democrats had too many key, swing races to defend. What was bad was how many seats we lost, and which ones. Lane Larson losing wasn't much of a surprise, but you can't feel too good about Taylor Brown who finances the likes of Dave Rye. While Ryan Zinke ran as a moderate Republican -- especially his conservation ethic -- which helped him defeat MacLean, his views on health care is Neanderthal. He'll definitely be a road block for anything meaningful that comes up before the state Senate. And Greg Hinckle over Paul Clark? Damn.

The state House locked at 50-50. It may still flip to a Democratic majority, given that absentee ballots and recounts are pending, but this shouldn't have been so close. The electoral map greatly favored Democrats this year.

A couple of races to watch: HD 100, with 33 votes separating Curdy from Nooney; and HD 58, with Doc Woerner 22 votes shy of Krazy Kerns. Final results apparently due on Monday. With JP Pomnichowski's lead looking firm today, if either of those races flip, we'll have a clear Democratic majority. In the case of a tie, the Democrats get to select a Speaker of the House, but committees and committee leadership will be evenly split. I prefer a clear majority, especially if the GOP's sitting on the Senate. Of course, either way, Scott "No" Sales won't be Speaker, so there's that.

But the biggest shocker to me was Ed Tinsley losing his re-election bid to Derek Brown for Lewis and Clark county commissioner. Unbelievable. I mean, the guy's nearly universally liked, even among Republicans. What happened here? Can anybody shed light on this?

The ugly.

Brad Molnar. The whole PSC 2 race was painful to watch, but I found Molnar's histrionics and his numerous tangles with ethics to be particularly ugly. Don't know if you saw this, but Molnar's now proclaiming himself to be the top Republican state officeholder -- which may be true. Sure, that's actually a good thing for the Democratic party over the next couple of years, as Molnar will probably get the attention and scrutiny that goes along with it, but listening to Molnar is like fingernails on a chalkboard. Train wreck every time he opens his mouth. Let's hope these ethics complaints go somewhere.

Greg Hinckle? Really?

Roger Koopman's ultraconservative candidates all won their election bids. Lee Randall won HD 39, Joel Boniek won HD 61, and Mike Miller won HD 84. You might remember these sweethearts: they were all involved in disgraceful primary battles against moderate Republicans. Incidentally, Lambart, Ward, and Malcolm all ran write-in candidacies against Koopman's Kooks, but to no avail. It's worth keeping an eye on Randall, Boniek, and Miller: they could be easy targets during the next election, especially if they follow Koopman's lead and make *sses of themselves on the House floor.

California's proposition 8 passed. I know it's not Montana -- but...in California? To institute a ban on gay marriage? I'll never get this, why people want to single out their fellow citizens for institutional discrimination. That's not just.

Did I miss anything?