by Ken Toole | May 11, 2026 | Republicans
We all should have received our ballots in the mail over the Mother’s day weekend. Most of us know there has been a lot of game playing in the primary this year. Perhaps the most bizarre is two Republican activists filed as Democrats. James Whitaker filed in Senate District 12 and Mark Winters in Senate District 11. Both men have consistently lied about their political affiliation. Even the chair of the local Republican Central Committee has said he does not believe they are Democrats.
And speaking of sleazy electoral moves, long term local Libertarian Party leaders have filed as Republicans. Tony Rosales filed in House District 20 and Kevin Leatherbarrow filed in House in House District 22. This pair has run for office repeatedly. Apparently they are tired of being Libertarian losers.
We should not forget that our current County Attorney, Josh Racki and Sheriff Jesse Slaughter switched from being Democrats to join the Republican Party. Obviously both of them were more committed to their own political careers than the platforms of either party. Neither of them has a democratic challenger in this election.
All of this maneuvering is a product of the current war in the local Republican Party between traditional Republicans like Ed Buttrey and George Nikakalakos and Republicans who wear tin hats to bed like Steven Galloway and Randy Pinocci.
This is a photo of a voter guide put out by the far-right contingent of the local Republican Party. If you know people who plan to vote in the Republican Primary you should give them this list (After recommending counseling and deprogramming). Let them know these are the extremists in politics everyone is complaining about.
by Ken Toole | May 6, 2026 | E-City Beat Watch
Transparent: characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices. (Webster Dictionary Definition)
The local right-wing blog, E-City Beat has been running a series of posts on non-profit organizations in Great Falls. In introducing the series the editor says the reason for the series is “in the interest of public transparency”. All E-City Beat is doing is copying legally required, publicly available, financial reports. They provide no other information about the work and services these local organizations provide. Apparently E-City Beat makes no effort to contact the subject organizations (though several have responded in the comments that the financial documents don’t provide a complete picture of the organization’s work and are often not timely.)
We can’t help but point out the irony of a local blog that claims to support “public transparency” routinely fails to disclose the identity of the authors of their material. That could be because one of their frequent contributors is City Commissioner, Rick Tryon. Further, Tryon has been employed by Stray Moose Productions, which is owned by Phil Faccenda, the founder and editor of E-City Beat.
In 2023, Jasmine Taylor (who is also one of the founders of WTF406.com) filed an ethics complaint against Tryon questioning his relationship with Stray Moose and E-City Beat deriving income violating the city ethics code. Tryon failed to attend the hearing on the complaint and refused to provide any financial information to the ethics committee. Not surprisingly, the complaint was dismissed. During their discussion, ethics committee members said they struggled with the lack of available information. https://theelectricgf.com/2023/11/13/ethics-committee-deems-complaint-against-tryon-unsubstantiated/#:~:text=Tryon%20did%20not%20attend%20the%20ethics%20committee,of%20E%2DCity%20Beat%2C%20only%20a%20volunteer%20contributor
So, how’s that for public transparency?
